Band Camp
by MirandaTam42
Summary: Modern high school AU Les Mis fanfic in which all of the members of Les Amis are involved with marching band, including Eponine, Cosette, and Musichetta. Enjolras is captain of the color guard, Joly's a flutist, Courfeyrac plays clarinet and Grantaire is the trademark obnoxious trumpet player. Starts out in the summer with the beginning and moves through the whole school year.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, welcome to my first multi-chaptered Les Mis fic! The summary is pretty straightforward, though I will add in that most everybody is in their junior year with the except of Bousset, Musichetta, and Combeferre who are seniors and Joly who's a sophomore.**

**Marching band in high school from what I understand is a pretty American/Canadian thing so I'm not really sure where this takes place. I'm also American so the only schools I know are from this country so this is going to sound pretty United-States-ian as far as their school goes. You could set this in the US or Canada or at a weird school in France, just wherever makes you happy. They will be in French class though, so it's a bit weird.**

**Pairings that will be explored (sort of spoilery but I supposed people ought to know what they're getting into): Cosette/Marius, Courfeyrac/Jehan, Enjolras/Grantaire, Eponine/Feuilly, Joly/Musichetta, maybe Joly/Musichetta/Bousset but I'm not sure, Eponine/Marius (notice how I said explored but not necessarily together)**

**This is the first chapter so it's a bit rough since I'm trying to set this universe up and not everyone is introduced but they will be sometime later. The songs I say are in their music aren't so much exactly what they're playing but they're there to at least give you the gist of the style of the show.**

**This is the longest author's note you'll ever see in here I swear, do not fear.**

**4UI5THGKJEWTNGHJ38674YJH;Q29093R**

"Oh God no, this is even worse than last year," groaned Courfeyrac. He stared at the clarinet music in front of him and dearly wished he could have played it upside down where most of the notes would look far less intimidating. "Look at that Jehan, those are up in the stratosphere!"

Jehan leaned over and grinned, "Yep, that's a doozey all right. I've got it nearly as bad though, and with a double reed at that." Courfeyrac rolled his eyes at Jehan and then let them settle on his beautiful red hair. Jehan had managed to interweave flowers into his braid this morning and make it look nicer than most girls' hair and Courfeyrac could look at just his hair alone all day.

Grantaire sauntered over and snapped Courfeyrac out of his staring. "You know, if you played a trumpet like me, that wouldn't be so hard."

"Oh shut up," said Courfeyrac.

"Anything you can play I can play better."

"No, anything I can play, you can play _louder_. There's a difference."

"You know, I'm a section leader too but I never complain about my part so you shouldn't either." Grantaire leaned down and whispered, "But we all know that you worked really hard on your audition just so you could sit next to your ginger oboe player, so I guess you're excused."

Courfeyrac blushed red and Jehan asked, "What?"

"You'll find out soon enough." Grantaire patted both of their heads and moved down to Joly a few seats away in the flute section. "How're you feeling about the new music, Joly?"

"It looks like fun!" Joly smiled and asked, "You?"

"I like anything so long as it doesn't bore me, and Professor Valjean never hands out boring music so of course I like it too." Grantaire pulled up an extra chair and sat next to him. "How are you doing?"

"I'm a bit nervous because I'll be sharing a whole gym with you and the other boys later and God knows how many germs and nastiness you people will bring, but other than that I think I should be okay."

"Anything else?"

Joly shook his head. "Nope." He considered Grantaire to be one of his best friends but by now he'd learned it was probably best to not mention 'little' things. For example, his left foot had fallen asleep two times in the last 36 hours and that while Grantaire would say it was nothing he knew he probably had circulation issues.

"Attention everyone!" Professor Valjean stepped onto the director's podium and continued, "Everyone has their music, yes? Good. Sit in your own seat Grantaire. As you all have probably figured out by now, this year's show theme is adventure! We have parts of He's a Pirate, Buckbeak's Flight, and Waltz of Treachery from YOUR OWN SEAT GRANTAIRE, pardon me, from that musical that took place around the French Revolution. All of these have been rescored to fit our needs, meaning they have no string parts but involve much more of the band and should sound great out on the field. You have one hour to practice and sight read this, then we'll start going through it. I'll be coming and going outside instructing the drumline if anybody has questions. Go."

The class sat in silence for a minute as people flipped through their parts. Eventually mostly accurate humming could be heard throughout the room as everyone waited for some brave soul to start playing first.

Marius licked his reed and started playing his saxophone which triggered almost everyone else to get to work mere seconds later. The classroom echoed with musical pandemonium as modified versions of rhythms and melodies floated out into the air.

Grantaire played five notes, sighed and looked around for somebody to talk to. For the billionth time he wished that Enjolras was in band with the rest of them even if he would just shoo Grantaire away. Bousset probably wouldn't mind being bugged so Grantaire wandered over to him in the mellophone section.

"You do know what Valjean will be back in here in a few minutes, right?" asked Bousset.

"I get bored without people to talk to."

"You should be practicing."

"I need a place to sit." Grantaire sat on Bousset's lap and was surprised when he didn't shove him off. "If I'd known that you didn't care if I sat on your lap I would have done this years ago."

"I do mind, but I'm just resigned to my fate." Bousset set his mellophone down beside him and playfully wrapped his arms around Grantaire. "If I'm going to get yelled at when he comes back I'd like to deserve it. So, this is my final year here and I want it to be as entertaining to me as possible. Got anything new to tell me about your love for Enjolras?"

"Ohhh, my sweet Enjolras," breathed Grantaire, completely ignoring the jab. "All the words of beauty I know can hardly do him justice."

"Are you sober?"

"Like four days, yeah."

"Just curious. Continue."

"But Enjolras, oh Enjolras, I haven't gotten to speak of my adoration of him all summer. His confidence, strength, passion, ahhh everything about him lures me like a moth to a flame. He's so good at being in color guard just watching him marching or running around doing flag choreography makes my heart beat quicker-"

"Grantaire, if you must pester people during practice could it at least be your neighbor?" Valjean had returned as Bousset had figured he would and Grantaire reluctantly got off of Bousset and sat down in his own chair.

Grantaire turned to the girl sitting next to him and said, "Hello sweetie. Are you new here? I can't remember your name."

"Yes I'm new here and my name's Musichetta. Yours is of course Grantaire."

"Haha, I'm flattered you know it already."

"It's only because Valjean has had to say it three times in the last ten minutes."

"Oh. Well, at least you know it." Grantaire looked her up and down and said, "You really are cute, you know. I have eyes for someone else, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating my beautiful neighbor."

Musichetta laughed at him and Grantaire tried to pout but wound up laughing as well. "We're going to be good friends, I can tell," she said. "Or we will be, if you do your stupid job as section leader and help me figure this part out."

"As you wish, dear lady."

"Oi! Lady my ass."

Joly took a short break and looked up at Grantaire to figure out why he hadn't wandered down to talk at him again. Musichetta stopped playing for a second and caught his eye and smiled at him. He forgot about Grantaire as his entire body heated up before he shakily smiled back and whipped back around so fast he knocked his music stand over with his clumsy feet.

Fever?

Dehydration?

Was something much worse and incurable, such as the infatuation of Enjolras that Grantaire had succumbed to over the years?

Quickened heart rate, nervousness, sweaty(er) palms, a strong desire to be near her and yet run away from her at the same time? Perhaps a desire to dance with her at a party, sneak off to her house in the middle of the night and make love to her despite their families being rivals for generations, and then dying by her side after she faked her death?

Shit.

"Jehan!" hissed Joly.

"What?"

"I think I'm in love."

"Took you long enough," said Jehan. "Who is it, may I ask?"

"This is bad Jehan, it's really bad. I don't even know her name!"

"Ahhh," he smirked. "This is the best sort of affair to watch. Perhaps you could help me write poetry from your newfound feelings for an unnamed goddess? I'm sure it'll inspire some great works."

Joly groaned and righted his stand and tried to look busy since Jehan was going to be useless. Of course the damn poet would be no help; he'd enjoy this if he were in Joly's shoes.

Little did Joly know that Jehan was close to being in his shoes anyways, only that Jehan fully knew the one he adored. Jehan poked Courfeyrac in the side and whispered, "Joly's finally got a crush."

"I'm surrounded by people in love! Cosette and Marius with each other, Grantaire with Enjolras, Joly with whoever this is, Éponine with Marius, and you with the very idea of love. I thought all of those shows about teenage crushes and drama were kidding but I guess not." Courfeyrac made an effort to sound as if this was all very silly but he couldn't quite hide the hint of emotion in his voice.

"And you?"

"I'm like Enjolras, I'm busy with schoolwork. I have friends and that's all I need." Courfeyrac blushed and cursed himself for it.

"You're in love with someone Courf, I'll find out who it is soon enough!" Jehan gave Courfeyrac's hand a squeeze and said, "You're an awful liar and I know you too well for you to be able to keep something from me."

Courfeyrac tried to ignore Jehan and pointedly went back to playing clarinet.

After an hour Valjean took them through the music while the color guard started to arrive outside.

"Lucille, Pascal, Nicole, Antoinette, Julie, Alice, Henri, Colette, Maria, where's Éponine? She's usually not late." Enjolras ran his fingers through his hair and sincerely hoped that this year's color guard, predominantly female as usual, would be a good as the last. "Well, I may as well start my speech, she knows it all anyways.

"My name is Enjolras, and I'm your captain. This year, a bit more literally than usual because Valjean got the swell idea to have us dress up as pirates.

"Most of you know what to expect but I'll go over all of this. As a member of the color guard you'll march in parades and perform in shows. I don't care that you're not playing an instrument; I expect you to work just as hard as the band does. There is no way to fake your part and the audience's eyes will most likely be on us more than the band so you must be precise and accurate. This is supposed to be fun, yes, but this is also a performance. You're going to have to act professional and be focused and I won't take any slacking. I'll understand if you have some trouble getting your routine down but there's no excuse for not trying. Any questions?"

Everyone shook their heads and Enjolras noticed a few freshmen looking scared. Part of him wanted to reassure them that they'd be fine if they kept up, another part smirked and said '_good'_. The nice reassuring side won.

"As I said, this is supposed to be fun, remember to do your best and work hard and you'll be fine. Ah, there you are, Éponine! I have one more thing to tell you all before we go out on the field and practice basic marching with everyone else. As I said, Valjean is having us dress up as pirates, and I need two people who will be able to go through a choreographed duel in the show with some fake sabers we have."

Éponine's hand shot in the air so fast she whacked Henri in the shoulder. Enjolras nodded. "Great. Our second person?"

No one moved.

"I'm going to have to do this myself, aren't I?" By the grins he got back he figured it was what everyone wanted to see. "Alright, fine. That's settled, so let's move out!"

Enjolras led the group down to the marching field, which was in reality a chunk of parking lot eighty yards across that was cut off from the rest by sidewalks and marked specifically for marching. Every ten yard lines were marked like they would be on a football field as well as every eight steps with short lines or dots, making a sort of grid. The field was also cut in half vertically to form a back and front half by short vertical lines every twenty yard lines. The result was a place to march that would be easily transferred to an actual football field without having to spend hours and hours practicing on grass and finding potholes.

"Hey Éponine, why were you late today?" asked Enjolras.

"I had to bring the boys with me since they didn't want to stay home with our parents, don't blame them, and Simon had lost a shoe and it took long enough to find it that I was late getting here."

"Where are they?"

"They plan to hang out with Feuilly when he's not working on his music."

"As long as they don't make trouble it's okay."

"You know them; Gavroche would make sure they stay in line. Aha, see? They're playing with a hacky sack." They were at the field and Enjolras could see Éponine's little brothers playing off to the side a ways away from Feuilly, who was reading under a tree but looked up every few minutes to check on them.

Enjolras mentally braced himself as he heard a small army coming up from behind them as most of the band kids jogged past them for the field. Except, of course, for Grantaire.

"What sort of flirtatious comments do you have for me today that aren't going to seduce me at all?" asked Enjolras.

"Those red yoga pants do nice things to your legs."

"That was a bit too forward and bordering on pathetic."

"It was improvised. I haven't had the time yet to sit down and think of new things to say to you, gorgeous son of Apollo, but I'm sure I'll get a great list for tomorrow."

"Huh, you usually flat out call me Apollo, but now I got demoted to a demigod? If I cared at all about these silly conversations I'd be offended."

Grantaire smiled and said, "Last I checked you wanted me to view you as human and not as an angel or god or some unearthly thing because you say you aren't perfect, so I bumped you down to being a demigod so I can adore the traits you share with Apollo but not piss you off as much."

"Thank you, that actually does make me feel a bit better." Éponine chuckled at them and Grantaire winked at her before running off to talk to Musichetta about what they were doing.

Joly spotted Feuilly and jogged up to the cluster of trees by the marching field that shielded them from some of the traffic noise of the street on the other side. He stooped down and affectionately fluffed Feuilly's auburn hair and asked, "How're you, Feuilly?"

"I'm doing great. I just got my Polish textbook from the community college!" He grinned and held up his textbook that read '_Polski- Rok pierwszy'_ and had a bunch of pictures of landscapes and towns that Joly assumed were of Poland. Joly felt a rush of happiness for his friend and sat down by him against a tree even though he was sure he'd have to get up in a minute.

"Your parents are letting you start a college class?"

"Yep! Jenna and Timothy said that they were alright with it since it turns out that we don't have to pay tuition through the program. You ought to do it next year when you're a junior. The high school pays your tuition if you get in and you could do up to three college classes if you wanted and you only have to pay for books. I'm just doing the one though, since I want to still be here with you guys for most of the day." Feuilly somehow made Joly smile even wider with how radiant he looked. He'd been living with his foster parents for almost four years now but he still called them by their first names. If asked he said that he'd had too many fathers and mothers in the past after his history of being a hot potato in the system and that their first names were just fine. Joly had seen him look sad or lonely with no explanation many days, perhaps because of long lost friends, and it was a relief to see him ecstatic about something.

"Alright everybody, get on the field!" shouted Combeferre. He tapped a cowbell twice with a drumstick and waited for everyone to get in some form of an array as the taps echoed in the air. He adjusted his glasses and said, "As senior drum major I'll be in charge of most things we do here in practice just as Alfred was last year. Valjean will also be out here too but I'll be doing most of the grunt work, alright?" Some people nodded and he continued.

"Spread out a bit more and set your instruments on the ground beside you."

"I think Valjean has a superpower that lets him know when the hottest weeks of the summer will hit and he has us start this then," groaned Courfeyrac. "I swear I'm going to join Feuilly in the pit next year where I don't have to do any of this."

"Lay down, everyone, we're starting with pushups!" called out Combeferre.

"This is the third year you've said that and I still don't see you picking up xylophone mallets," said Grantaire. He smirked as he got on the ground and mentally congratulated himself on getting behind Enjolras without him noticing. "Besides, this'll be fun."


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey look, an update! I'm very sporadic with how fast my chapters get up and what I'm working on. Sorry this took so long but I've had finals and stuff going on and to make up for it this chapter also has some length to it. I want to be able to update fairly quickly, or at least not painfully slowly so know that I don't really have a beta. Also, I'll be gone June 24****th****-July 2****nd**** so when I don't update or reply during then that's why (just saying this now in case I can't get chapter 3 up before I leave).**

**I usually answer reviews right to the reviewer's inbox but for anon/guest reviewers I have to do it here. Bear with me, I'm answering these here because I think they're important and need a reply, otherwise anons and guests go unanswered. A lot of this could make things clearer or clear up confusion so I'd recommend reading it even if you're not the person who asked the question, it could help. This is kinda long (lol much more so than the note I had last chapter) but I think I needed to get this out there for clarity and so you guys know where I'm coming from.**

**SpellingNazi: Flutist/flautist. I looked this up and the best answer I can give you is that we're both right. Sort of like color/colour, color is used here in the US while pretty much everyone else says colour, which is how flutist and flautist seem to be (though my Microsoft Word says they're both right while it fusses at colour). I've only seen the word flautist a few times in my life and heard it even fewer. Everyone I know, band instructors included, usually use flutist. Since the rest of my writing uses American spellings because that's just where I live and what my spelling is set for, I'm leaving it at flutist for consistency's sake and because it's correct to use it over here.**

**I'm glad you said something though, I enjoy going over details such as that and it's a nice thing to have reviewers who notice small things.**

**Guest(s): I think you're one person, reviews 1 and 4. I have in fact done marching band and the band program and way things are run are pretty much exactly how my school does band. Part of this is that we have a few different sayings and a few things I said may have gotten misinterpreted. For example, your field commander is my drum major. Also, in your list of band stuff, you had orders "band arms up" and "band arms down" while we say "horns up" and "horns down". Schools run things differently and I've heard some weird orders from directors from other schools so it seems to differ a bit from place to place.**

**You're absolutely right in that band members would never use guard sabers, but I put Enjolras and Éponine in color guard. Our guard had a student captain/leader, which basically means that if guard were their own section the captain is section leader, in this case Enjolras. I'm not having Enjolras play an instrument in this and he would be a good drum major but you'd have to be in band for that. When I said everyone was involved with marching band it didn't necessarily mean that they all marched in the band, color guard counts too. **

**Again with the differing ways band is run I can see how the ending of the last chapter could seem weird but it's because again going off of my band program. We opened each marching practice session with exercises (pushups, pilates, crunches) and then moved on to what we're doing that day. The guard joined us for that and then either stuck around or went off to do their own thing depending on what was up. I cut the chapter off at the start of the opening of the exercises because I didn't want to have everyone starting to march at the end of a chapter which is right where this is opening. The guard is with us when we go over forwards and backwards marching since they need to be able to walk with us during parades and also understand dot sheets. After learning how to march forwards and backwards they're almost never out with the band on the field unless if we're going through the show or parade where they need to practice with us. While the band is usually learning to march sideways they're off learning jazz running already and may join the band to run with them to act both as examples and just to practice is more since it's hard for a lot of people to master, instrument or no.**

**As far as the drum majors/order of command goes, Combeferre and two OCs are drum majors (I could have had someone like Courfeyrac be the junior drum major but I didn't want to put a lot of people in a position of leadership like that so the only Les Mis student as drum major is Combeferre), Valjean is director, and then sometime soon the guard instructor and a marching instructor will come into this, again more OCs (aka people I didn't need to try to get into the last chapter because people were getting enough new info without OCs).**

**Lastly, they are outside and heck, even in the rain (unless if it's dumping buckets) we still practice outside but have the woodwinds put their instruments away. I'm guessing the confusion could be from Joly's comment about sharing a gym with the boys later but he was referring to the sleeping arrangement in which the boys sleep in a gym and the girls in a different one at night. The only times they're inside is for sleeping, rehearsing only music in the band room when people haven't gotten things memorized yet (though they stand and mark time), mealtimes if people wanted to be inside for whatever reason, and if it's raining so hard that no one should be marching.**

**PS I've seen different positions for parade rest so if mine is different it's just how my school did it.**

**PPS/general note: This is so embarrassing especially since ff doesn't like me so I may not fix it last chapter, but I found that I was spelling Bossuet as Bousset because I made a typo and added to the dictionary and oops. Speaking of Bossuet, I don't see him drawn with a full head of hair and I've rarely seen him depicted in stories with it but since he starts balding at 25 (which is exactly what a friend of mine did poor guy) he still has all his hair in this. I'm not going to make him suffer through losing his hair years earlier than it should happen.**

**I hope that was helpful and informative and again, I like having reviewers ask about details and things like that. Feel free to ask any question you need and feel free to log in and sign it too, I don't bite!**

**4UI5THGKJEWTNGHJ38674YJH;Q29093R **

Enjolras turned his head once he heard Grantaire's voice and he let out a long suffering sigh. "Really? You're doing this again?"

"It makes these warm ups a lot better."

"I don't call out pushups because everyone goes at a different pace, so do fifteen on your own and then sit up and wait for everyone to finish," said Combeferre. Enjolras rolled his eyes and got down and did his pushups as quickly as he could knowing that Grantaire was watching him. Grantaire did his too and never let his eyes leave Enjolras.

Combeferre waited until everyone was sitting up and had their attention on him, except of course for Grantaire. "Grantaire eyes up!" Courfeyrac and Bossuet snickered and Combeferre ignored them. "The next thing we're doing is called a few different names such as butterflies or pilates but when I say them I mean the same thing, unless if I say butterfly stretch in which you all do the hamstring stretch you should have learned long ago. These butterflies are abdomen exercises and I'd like an upperclassman to come up here and model it. Courfeyrac?"

Courfeyrac nodded and went to the front of the group by Combeferre. He lay down on his back and went through the motions as Combeferre described them. "Posture is extremely important in marching and while these can be hard, we do them for a reason. You lie down flat on our back with your arms beside you, your palms flat on the ground, legs straight out, and then you raise both of your feet about four inches of the ground. Then you crisscross your feet at the ankles eight times and then raise your legs up to eight inches, oh come on Courfeyrac you're pathetic a bit higher, there you go, crisscross eight times again, and then back down to four inches and you keep going. This is meant to build stamina and strength and it's okay to take a short break if you must but you should be getting right back into it as soon as you can. Back to your spot Courfeyrac and let's do some of these together. Count out loud with me in sets of eight as I tap out the pace you should be going." Combeferre wandered around in the group to observe everyone as he tapped the cowbell with his drumstick and counted.

Courfeyrac lay down next to Jehan and obediently counted out loud and did his exercises until he heard Jehan panting a bit much. He took as deep a breath as he could allow so he could try to talk sound like he was counting too and whispered, "Two three four five you okay Jehan?"

"One two yeah," whispered Jehan. "Four five six just a bit out of shape from relaxing over the summer."

"Alright."

"That cloud to the left looks like a duck."

Courfeyrac had been sure that they'd been talking quiet enough for no one to hear them but he heard Grantaire let out a loud snort from a couple people away. Joly joined in the conversation and whispered, "Three four five that's called a cumulus cloud."

"Six seven no one cares three four," muttered Grantaire.

"Five six shut up R one two," counted Combeferre who had somehow only heard Grantaire even though Grantaire had done his best to blend his talking in with the counting. Combeferre went through one more set of eight and then tapped the cowbell twice in rapid succession. "Relax. Roll over and stretch out."

There was a collective sigh mixed with a couple groans as everyone relaxed and stretched. Jehan smiled as he supported himself on his hands and arced his back enough to feel a stretch. "I feel like a mermaid on a beach or something."

"You look like one too." Courfeyrac reached over and played with Jehan's braid. "You're like Ariel but cuter and with more freckles."

Grantaire rolled his eyes, leaned over and whispered in Musichetta's ear, "They've been like this since eighth grade and if they don't start dating soon I'm going to scream."

"You mean they aren't? I thought they were since the, um, Weasly one was holding the other guy's hand earlier."

"PFFT Weasly one! I forgot I hadn't introduced everyone to you yet in our circle of friends. The ginger is Jehan and he likes poetry and flowers, and the other one is Courfeyrac and we're usually partners in crime, or at least obnoxiousness." Grantaire nodded forward, "The cute blond in front of me is Enjolras-"

"You're really not subtle at all, Grantaire," said Enjolras.

"-our senior drum major is Combeferre and he's pretty strict but he can be merciful, the mellophone player I was harassing earlier is Bossuet and he has such bad luck that he refuses to play poker with anyone, the tough guy of a sousaphone player in the very back is Bahorel-"

"There's three sousaphone players and two of them are guys and they both look tough," said Musichetta as she looked backwards at them.

"Oh, you're right. I guess I'll have to introduce you in person. The flute player who knocked over his music stand once he made eye contact with you is Joly and I'm still not over how flushed he got afterwards. He's never fallen for anybody before and I think you ought to introduce yourself to him before he lets himself become a bundle of nerves because he's too shy to even ask your name and it'll make it a lot less awkward for everyone if he's not blushing and knocking things over all the time. The guy over there reading a book in the shade is Feuilly and I hate him right now because he's in the percussion pit and doesn't have to do the field shit we do but since he's studying for a college class I guess I can try to forgive him."

"Studying for college, what a lazy jerk."

"Right? Marius is the alto sax player with the stupid hair right behind Joly."

"Ah, I see him."

"Yeah, he's hard to miss. Cosette is the blonde drummer waaay in the back and she's Valjean's adopted daughter, so make sure to be nice and don't be surprised if she calls you out on your music or marching; she's something of a perfectionist after being raised by a music director. Cosette is also dating Marius so be prepared for PDA. Éponine is the color guard member over there on the end and she's pretty cool. She's the older sister of the kiddos over there playing hacky sack, the oldest of the boys is Gavroche and the two little ones are Simon and Dru. They like following Éponine to practices because their parents are major assholes to them."

"This is a well known fact among all of you?"

"Yeah, she's told us all and doesn't care to hide it because it isn't her fault and she's sick of covering up for them."

"Okay."

Combeferre ran his fingers through his hair and adjusted his glasses as he got ready to get everyone's attention again. This job wasn't as easy as he was making it look and it was surreal to see a group of people mostly his own age following his directions outside of a group project. He gave the cowbell two sharp taps and waited for everyone to become quiet. "That break was longer than most of the stretch breaks I give you on the field, so be aware that it won't be like that in the future. Next, we're doing crunches which everyone knows how to do, yes? Good. Do 25 of them."

Joly panted and felt himself getting too warm. Fearing dehydration, he finished quickly and jogged off the field to get a drink of water from the bottle he had set in the shade. A guard member looked up hopefully and asked, "Are we getting a water break?"

Combeferre sighed. "No, it's just Joly, we have half an hour to go. Ignore him."

Joly flushed and returned to his spot and said, "Sorry, I can't help it."

Combeferre waved Joly off and led them through more exercises, often repeating some such as more pushups and butterflies. The group's relief was near tangible when he called out, "Okay, time to learn how to march!

"This is our first day of camp so we don't have our marching instructor or our color guard instructor but they should be here in the next day or two to help us once we have basic marching down. I need an upperclassman volunteer to come up here from each section, please. No Jehan stay put you're the only oboe player and you don't need to model for yourself." One of each person, including Enjolras for color guard, came to the front of the group. "Everyone gather around but be back by an eight step mark from our demonstrators." Everyone got up and made a wide and slightly lopsided circle around the upperclassmen models and sat down. "This is where all of what you just did in your warm up comes in.

"One of the most important things in marching is posture. Guard members, this will be a bit different for you depending on what you're doing in the show since you don't march per se all the time but this still applies to you for parades at least. Speaking of guard, a couple of you need to go and get flags." Éponine and another girl ran off to retrieve their flags from the storage room. Now then, when standing, your legs should be straight-"

"But don't lock your knees!" piped up Joly.

"Yeah, thanks Joly. Don't lock your knees because you could pass out from cutting off your own circulation and I hate dealing with unconscious bodies. That and you won't be as ready to move fluidly if they're locked so keep them mostly straight but not locked. Anyways, legs basically straight, stomach sucked in, shoulders back, back straight, and eyes up. We never stare at the ground while marching and if you must look around to check your work move your eyes but not your head. There are three main positions you need at know which are parade rest, attention, and ready.

"When standing at attention, your feet should make a V with your heels together at about a 45 degree angle. You should have the posture I just described, but what you do with your instruments varies from each one of you. For most of you, you should hold it out from your body in front of you with mouthpiece at eye level and the instrument parallel to your body. Sousaphones and drummers, just hold your stuff without it being ready to play. You'll hear a couple of different commands to send you to this position, the one most often used in practice both out here and in the band room is 'set'." The demonstrator students immediately went to attention upon hearing the word. Éponine and her partner came back and set all of the flags on the sidelines of the field except for one which she gave to Enjolras. "Thank you, ladies. The more formal command you'll here usually at the start of practice and before parades and shows is BAND ten HUT!"

"HUT!" barked the standing group back at Combeferre, snapping back to attention if they weren't there already. A Musichetta and a few freshmen jumped and Combeferre couldn't hide a small smile.

"Just a reminder that this is more militaristic than it would seem. So, that's attention, here's ready, given by the command, horns up!" The group went to ready position which Combeferre described and pointed out specifics for each section. "This is playing position, clarinets come out to a 45 degree angle, flutes are parallel to the ground, trumpets and mellos are held up at a 15 degree angle, that's why we do those pushups people, saxes and bass clarinets play where it's natural for marching position since you don't have much choice with your strap, same for you sousaphones and drummers, you don't have much choice since you're wearing the instrument.

"While the command for this was horns up, the command for going to attention from here is, horns down." Everyone went back to attention. "The final position you need to know before we start actually marching is parade rest. Feet are shoulder length apart and in this instance your head can be down a little bit since this is a relaxed position. Saxes, bass clarinets, and sousaphones stay at attention because you don't have much choice. Trumpets and mellos hold your instrument in your right hand with your left hand over your right and hold it against you in front of you perpendicular to the ground. Clarinets and flutes, hold your instruments in your right hand and rest it in the crook of your left arm. Your left hand should be over your right hand or wrist." Courfeyrac was the clarinet player demonstrating for his section and he looked down at his clarinet in his arms with so much tenderness like it was his child that a few people giggled at him.

"While at parade rest, the only command you'll ever hear is the command to go to attention, in which you'll snap your feet together, left foot to right, and be at attention. Our band here has sort of weird signaling. The official command to go to parade rest is 'at ease', but sometimes I'll do the tap-tap on the cowbell, and that means at ease once you're in a halt. The tap-tap also means the end of a water break or it could be used to get your attention in general in these early days before we're playing music and have the megaphone out here. Any questions so far?"

Either the confused people were feeling shy or Combeferre had done a good job. He inwardly sighed and kept going, hoping it was the latter. "Alright, now for actual marching.

"We all need to have the same stride and size of steps for us to be synchronized and able to read off of our dot sheets, the coordinates we get for the show choreography. We move eight steps going from yardline to yardline, which is a total of five yards and sets our step size. This takes awhile to get down but by the end of this you'll have gained a creepy superpower that compels you to subconsciously walk in step with whoever you're next to in the hallway.

"The most important thing to keep in mind is that unless if the show has an odd turn or step off for you, you ALWAYS start on your LEFT foot!" Combeferre held out his left hand and held up his thumb and index finger. "Make yourself a little L if you need to on your hand. THIS IS YOUR LEFT. THIS IS LEFT." Grantaire and Joly both fought back smirks and neither one quite made it. Combeferre seemed to be on the lookout for anything Grantaire did that could disrupt anyone and he rolled his eyes at Grantaire. "This may seem funny, but somebody, likely more than one somebody, will be starting out on their right foot no matter how many times I say LEFT! You start on the LEFT. Which foot?"

"Left!" chorused the band with a few more smirks.

"Being a drum major must get to you after awhile," muttered Grantaire. Enjolras was still standing in front of Grantaire and Grantaire could have sworn that his leg twitched in desire to snap back and kick him but didn't as people openly chuckled.

"It does get to me because I have been saying this for years now. LEFT LEFT LEFT LEFT LEFT! I will have to repeat myself, I know this, but please don't let it be about this. Think port not starboard if it helps. Nail your right foot to the ground in your mind if you have to just please start on the LEFT.

"What are you doing with your LEFT foot? Marching isn't quite like walking. Aside from the fact that you're moving with others in time to a beat, marching is smoother and less bumpy so you can play while you move. Marching forwards uses a rolling motion from the heel to the toe, so you start out on the left, take a step forward and foot straight, and then in a fluid motion and in time your right foot takes a step as well, and now your feet should be parallel and not angled out like they were at attention." Combeferre seemed to forget that he had students to model what he was saying and did it himself as he spoke. "In our basic marching stuff today we'll be going in intervals of eight steps and then stopping. In order to stop, you use your right foot. You're marching and doing your heel to toe movement, but when you're coming to a stop or a halt you point your right foot toe down to stop yourself and let your left foot click its heel against your right, and your feet should be back to where they were at attention at a 45 degree angle. Basically, you start at attention, point your feet forward as you walk and then when you stop your toe points down at an angle and the other foot slides in to make the 45 degree angle you started out with. Are we clear?" Everyone nodded. "Okay then, let's all try this together."

Combeferre and the other drum majors spread out among the students as they settled in lines across the yardlines. He started tapping out a steady rhythm and said, "This is our marching tempo for now, about 100 beats per minute. We're going to count out loud as we go, and the counting goes one two three four five six seven POINT close, for when you stop on count 8 with your toe. Lets' just try that, eight counts for free."

Combeferre's phone dinged before it was time to march and Grantaire mock gasped, "You left your phone on?"

"Of course I did, Valjean is the only person not on the field who would be texting me and anything he says is important." Combeferre read the message and grinned. "He says me to tell you guys that our marching instructor from last year will be coming here tomorrow."

"Awww, that's really pathetic, except for that bit about our instructor. Please tell me I heard wrong and that you don't mean Javert."

"Yes it is Javert."

Several people moaned and Courfeyrac said, "Oh no, I hoped they'd fired that guy."

"He volunteers," snapped Enjolras.

"Well then I wish he'd quit or something."

"That's very disrespectful."

"What's wrong with Javert?" asked Musichetta.

"Uh nothing, he's just, uh, evil!" Grantaire sighed and said, "Admit it Enjolras, you're scared of him like the rest of us. Especially now that you're a color guard captain, you'd better make sure the guard is fantastic or you'll get grilled."

"Just because he's terrifying doesn't mean I think he's bad. He gets the show going and he knows what he's doing and it's great of him to volunteer to help us even though he already has a job as a campus security officer."

"Enjolras is right," said Combeferre.

"Easy for you to say, dude. You don't have to march under his orders."

Combeferre grinned. "Yes, you're under my orders and his orders and if you don't want his first day here this year to go awful for you then I suggest you all put in your best effort today. Now then, 8 counts for free, one two three four five six seven eight-and ONE-"

The step off could have gotten better, Combeferre wanted to sob as he saw some people step off with their right foot but he kept it to himself as he finished up the counting. Most people walked relatively in time, some miraculously ended up where they were supposed to be but many people were as much as a full three steps off from where they should have been. He tapped the cowbell twice and said, "Alright, check your work, get to where you need to be if you're off. This does take some getting used to. Also, nobody moves at the end until I give the signal, okay?"

He led them through several more sets of walking five yards forward and then had them turn around once they reached the end of the field to keep walking forwards.

"Okay everyone, water break! Good work. I think with a few more runs we could be ready to try backwards marching."

"Uh, Combeferre?" asked one of the other drum majors.

"Yes, Holly?"

"It's lunchtime."

"Oh, I lied, it's lunch. Some of your wonderful parents have volunteered to make you all meals so go and enjoy them. It's important that you all eat since we work so hard and you don't want to get so tired you faint or can't march or play. If you don't eat I'm sending Joly after you until you do. Those of you with larger instruments can leave them here on the field; woodwinds should take theirs with them."

The students left the field and the drum majors stayed behind to wait until everyone else had gone. Feuilly ran after the group and came up beside Enjolras. "Want a granola bar? I know you like raisins."

"Hm? Oh, thanks Feuilly." Enjolras took the offered bar and peered into Feuilly's open backpack, "Why did you bring so many snacks?"

"I wasn't sure if Valjean knew I was going to stay here even though I'm just a pit member so I brought my own food in case they didn't have enough. They do, of course, but I would feel bad about not bringing my own since it's supposed to be for you marching people."

"That's very considerate of you to do that, though a bit silly."

"I'd do almost anything to spend time with the lot of you, bringing food and sleeping in a gym is fine by me."

"I didn't realize you were staying the night with us too."

"Yep! It's not required, not even for you if you could drag a parent out of bed at 7:30 every morning and make them bring you here but I really want to hang out with you and feel the same sort of camaraderie you share with everyone."

Grantaire fell into step on the other side of Enjolras and said, "Aye, it sure makes playing basketball in the gym a new experience knowing you've slept in the corner before. Makes the school in general feel more like a home after you've spent some of your summer here and had the best of times before the year starts up. I feel like my personal space is being invaded when all the rest of the blighters who go here come on the first day of school and make the hallways so crowded you wind up touching people whether you want to or not. I usually want to, don't get me wrong, but it's still odd."

Musichetta could see that Enjolras felt uncomfortable and swooped into the conversation. "Hey Feuilly, my name's Musichetta."

"Hi! Hm, want a Red vine?"

"Absolutely!"

Courfeyrac walked behind the rest of the students and beside Jehan. He took a few deep breaths and mentally steeled himself. Now or never. He bit his lip and prayed that he wasn't about to make the biggest mistaken in his life. "So, um, you like poetry."

"Duh! I live practically live off of it. To look into the soul and explore it and the world around you is so wonderful Courfeyrac, you should really try it sometime."

"Yeah, well that's the thing, um, I have to pee and you should come with me to the bathroom."

"WHAT? I'M NOT A GIRL!"

"Shush! I know you're not but I need to talk to you in private to um, show you something."

Jehan stopped and tugged on Courfeyrac's sleeve and asked, "What is it? The fact that you want to show me in a bathroom worries me."

"I just want somewhere where I won't be overheard, or at least where no one but you can see what I need to show you. It's not anything nasty, it's just something I did, for-for you that I want just you to see." Courfeyrac texted Grantaire and asked him to save him and Jehan some food and pulled out a small notebook from his pocket. "Um, want to go over there by the trees?"

"Whatever you need to do for this." Courfeyrac led Jehan to the trees by the nearest school building and made sure they were well hidden.

"Alright Jehan, um, I'm not very good at this, but I wrote you a poem. I hope you like it, or, at least understand it. I've had it for weeks now and I don't think I have any changes to make. Here."

Jehan's eyes lit up and he gave him an encouraging smile. He held Courfeyrac's notebook in one hand and read:

_You look upon the world with love_

_And see beauty all around_

_The leaves, the birds, the trees, the wind_

_You cherish every sound_

_A mind full of wonder_

_A pen full of ink_

_You make art, it seems to me_

_Without even having to think_

_You observe the universe_

_And it shows and teaches_

_The best of what you have inside_

_You are good to all reaches_

_Dawn to dusk_

_Night to day_

_You are at home, notebook in hand_

_To hear what nature has to say_

_This is how you see the world_

_An open heart of admiration_

_Yet did you know, this is also how I see you_

_Please don't let this be our friendship's damnation_

_You're my world, lovely poet_

_You make the flowers jealous_

_I love you with all my heart_

_I hope I don't come across overzealous_

Courfeyrac stood and fidgeted while Jehan read, occasionally leaning over to read his face and over his shoulder but resuming the same awkward and tense position as before. "So, yeah. I love you."

**I just finished this at 11 at night so I'm sure there are some typos but hoorah for an update! I planned to have this go through the whole day but it's gotten too long for me to do that, this seemed like a good place to stop (I hope, I'm pretty out of it).**

**I have no idea how Feuilly became Starkid!Ron, it just kind of happened.**

**Reviews are lovely and reviewers even more so.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey everyone, this is my last update before I leave :D I'll be coming back July 2****nd**** from my trip (Costa Rica with fellow Spanish students), but I may not update for a bit since I don't know what my life will be doing then once I'm back.**

**Review responses since ya'll don't like signing in, it seems :P**

**SpellingNazi: British spelling is cool and it would explain why you've seen flautist so much and I haven't. Ah whew, that's what I worry about a lot to be honest. I want to have everyone be in character yet not have one or two characters get all the attention. Granted, I do focus on some more than others but I try to move and switch around. I'm glad to know it's working out because I don't want to wind up like Glee, Les Mis edition.**

**Anna: Um, Enjolras **_**didn't**_** talk to the guard in front of the whole band. The guard was outside listening to him talk while the band was inside reading through the music. If you mean that he shouldn't have asked the whole guard about the 2 solo parts I would disagree, since seniors don't always get or even want the solo parts and despite himself being captain I think he would have offered it to others first before automatically taking it. Had Éponine and 2 or more other people said they wanted it he would have auditioned it or something but as it is him and Éponine have the saber fight part which I'll get into sometime in the future.**

**Lesleigh: Not many guys do guard regardless of sexual orientation. Out of the 11 people counting Enjolras there are 8 girls and 3 boys which seemed about right to me though I could see there being a few more girls in there with the ratio still being alright. **

**As for not many straight guys do guard or are captain, well, DING DING DING! Enjolras isn't straight in this. At all. He isn't flamboyantly gay or horny gay and he seems asexual and aromantic most of the time but he is gay. I don't think it matters too much what his orientation is as guard captain but for the record he's gay.**

**I'm legitimately confused about how some of you mistook Enjolras for a drum major. He acts like one, I'll give you that, because even if he wasn't in a position of leadership he would still help and instruct others if he knew what he was doing and they didn't (he was probably something of a know it all freshman but one who was actually helpful to everyone). Most people probably think of him as something of an honorary drum major because he's a natural leader who can't turn leadership mode off and will talk at anyone around him who's having problems but he isn't an actual drum major. It's kind of like how if Grantaire and Courfeyrac as section leaders didn't goof off they could be helpful and looked up to as leaders or people of authority even outside of their section. With their temperament that of course doesn't happen much but it's the same idea.**

**My confusion is because it says up in the description that he's color guard captain and in chapter 1 he explicitly says, "My name is Enjolras, and I'm your captain. This year, a bit more literally than usual because Valjean got the swell idea to have us dress up as pirates." He says he's captain, and he includes himself in the people who are dressing up as pirates, the guard members, by saying 'us'. He's on the field doing work like everyone else and not walking around with the drum majors to check on everyone and I'm seriously confused as to why some of you thought he's a drum major or wasn't sure that he's in guard.**

**Is there something I should have said differently to make it clearer? Because if so I'll go back and edit it since it happened to more than one of you and it'll probably happen again. This seems to be more of a writing error and less of a reading error if it happened more than once and I want to know how to fix it.**

**Is it an Enjolras **_**should**_** have been drum major or would make a perfect drum major? I totally agree. He'd make a great drum major. He's also a great guard captain too. I can see every single character in this as something other than what I made them and have it still fit. Courfeyrac could play pretty much anything and in my mind it'd still be in character. The same with Joly, although him playing a sousaphone is a weird image. Cosette being a drummer is actually sort of out there but to me she's just as good as a drummer as she would be on any other instrument. Hell, I could see Bahorel playing a flute just to mess with people. Grantaire as a section leader wasn't something I had originally thought about having him be but with his musical talent (what the hell can't he do) I didn't let him let it go to waste in the band program and he stepped up and took on the role. In contrast, he could have done badly on any given chair test on purpose just so he could avoid being section leader or having 1****st**** trumpet part because it would require more effort and practice and I would have considered that in character. Everybody could have wound up being something different because this has so many combinations and possibilities but out of the many ways I could have gone I went with what you see.**

**Dang that got long again. My apologies to those of you who don't read these, I bold them for a reason so you can scroll past. **

**Now without further ado, chapter 3:**

"Um." Courfeyrac's fidgeting increased when Jehan looked up and he rambled, "I've been trying to keep this to myself because I was sure you liked someone else and I tried to not talk about love around you or make it sound like I was in it and oooooooh man I'm such a bad liar it all fell apart and I just had to tell you-"

Jehan's mouth stopped Courfeyrac's words. Courfeyrac stood motionless as Jehan kissed him and absorbed the end of his sentence. Jehan stopped after a couple seconds and smiled sheepishly at Courfeyrac's shocked face.

"You okay, Courf?"

Courfeyrac tilted his head and pressed his lips against Jehan, unsure of what to do with him or how he would react. Jehan wrapped his arms around Courfeyrac's neck and pulled them closer while he lazily kissed Courfeyrac, letting his lips move slowly and teach Courfeyrac what to do. Courfeyrac got the hang of what he wanted and gently sucked on Jehan's upper lip as the heat from his face moved all over.

He broke their kiss but held Jehan around the waist. "How long have you felt like this, Jehan?"

"Years," he whispered.

"Me too."

Jehan removed his arms from around Courfearac's neck and hugged him normally. He snuggled against Courfeyrac and rested his head on his shoulder. "You know, the reason why I didn't say anything to you was because I was sure you liked someone else since if you liked me of all people you would have just said so. With me and my heart I thought anyone would have just told me."

"I thought YOU liked someone else, so I kept quiet."

"What? Who?"

Courfeyrac rubbed Jehan's back and kissed his neck. "Do you promise not to get mad at what I say next?"

"Yes, of course."

"I thought you had feelings for R because I saw you kissing in 8th grade."

Courfeyrac thought Jehan might start yelling at him about privacy but to his surprise Jehan started laughing. "Oh my GOD Courf, you've been holding back because of THAT?"

"Well, yeah! I know R 'dates' a lot of people but I thought that you two might have had a thing going on. I thought it was weird because of R's habit of flirting with and dating so many people but you two are so close I thought there might have been some romance in the background and I didn't want to come in between that and hurt two of my best friends."

"Oh dear, we have some impressive communication issues. No, we don't have anything going on; I just wanted him to teach me how to kiss."

"Oh." Courfeyrac sighed in relief but then became tense again. "You were cuddling and such though! And you even frenched each other a bit!"

"Yeah, I didn't plan on that but he said that if he was going to teach me, he'd do it properly."

Courfeyrac pet Jehan's braid and said, "I'm sorry for not talking to you about this I mean, we could've dated years ago, but after seeing that I felt sure that you were in love because it would be so unlike you to kiss someone you weren't in love with. The memory is really clear to me Jehan and you two were super close, didn't it hurt you to then not date him?"

"It did a little bit, even though R and I had established that he wasn't in love with me and I wasn't in love with him and that it was purely to teach me what kissing was like I felt lonely afterwards. Curiosity may kill me someday I have so much of it. I can't help it. I really want to travel and explore, not only the world outside but the world inside of my soul and really get to live life and understand all of it's depths and shallows, you know? So, yeah, I was a bit stupid and kissed someone I didn't romantically love because I wanted to know what it felt like."

"And we were both very stupid by not talking to each other and holding back our love."

"Yeah." Jehan moved his head back so he could look into Courfeyrac's eyes and said, "So, now that we're together, we can explore together. Those reaches of the soul, heart, and sprit await us, but why are you blushing?"

"I'm sorry," said Courfeyrac as he tried to hold back an embarrassed laugh. "But all I can think about right now is exploring kinks."

"COURF!" Jehan and Courfeyrac burst into laughter on the other's shoulder and gasped for breath. "You completely ruined the moment!" gasped Jehan.

"I know!"

"I love you."

"I love you too." Courfeyrac recovered enough to be able to look at Jehan without laughing and asked, "May I kiss you again?"

"Only if you kiss me like you mean it. Come on, take the lead."

"Alright," murmured Courfeyrac. He gently placed his hands on Jehan's shoulders and pushed him against the nearest tree. "Let's go back blushing because we got all hot and bothered and not because of a stupid thing I said." He aligned his body with Jehan's and pressed their bodies together before leaning in and kissing him, starting out softly and then adding in more energy as his hands trailed down Jehan's sides. Jehan closed his eyes and dug his fingernails into Courfeyrac's back. Courfeyrac left a hand on Jehan's waist but brought the other up to caress his check as he slipped his tongue into Jehan's mouth.

The fact that they were at school completely slipped their minds as they got more into their kissing and touching, eventually letting out loud moans and breathing on the other's face. Jehan lifted a leg and rubbed his thigh against Courfeyrac's hip and shrieked.

"FUCK! Sorry, your phone! It scared me oh my God it vibrated!"

Courfeyrac was in a daze as he slipped a hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "Oh yeah, it's lunch. I told R to save us some food and I'll bet he was the one texting me." He reluctantly stepped back so he wasn't touching Jehan and read through 21 text messages, all from Grantaire.

**R:** _Hey we're having soup and sandwiches for lunch do you like cheese?_

_I'm gonna pretend you do._

_Man, where are you?_

_Do you think Jehan likes wheat bread or white bread?_

_I reached for the white and Joly yelled at me so tough shit if he doesn't want it he got wheat._

_OKAY SERIOUSLY WHERE THE FUCK IS YOU?_

_You both got sandwiches with deli ham, lettuce, tomato, cheese, dressing, and pickles and I can tell you right now your lunch is in grave danger with the many teenagers lurking around._

_WHAT THE FUCK IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN FOOD TO YOU OMFG WHAT IS GOING ON?_

_Bahorel stole your Doritos._

_Actually I helped because hello DORITOES._

_Bossuet left to go to the mini mart across the street and if ol' bad luck Bossuet beats you back here with his knack for going into stores with long lines I'm coming after you myself._

_You know I know what I really wish was happening between you and Jehan right now but I know it isn't and it makes me sad because you're IDIOTS like come on MAKE OUT ALREADY HINT HINT HINT BITCH_

_The only thing keeping your noodle soup warm is the heat of the damn sun and the embarrassment it has of being soup without someone to eat it._

_Actually plenty of people want to eat it but I told them that you need it AIN'T I A GOOD FRIEND?_

_YOU HAD BETTER BE ACTUALLY MAKING OUT THERE IS NO OTHER REASON FOR YOU TO BE GONE THIS LONG_

_I bet your phone has been going off so much it's like someone stuck a vibrator in your pocket yet YOU STILL WON'T REPLY_

_COME_

_ON_

_UUUUUUGH_

_GET YOUR CUTE LITTLE VIRGIN BUTT OVER HERE!_

Courfeyrac laughed and grabbed Jehan's hand. "Come on, they seem anxious to have us back."

"You want to go holding hands?"

"Yeah. Is that okay?"

Jehan squeezed his hand and nodded. They walked hand in hand from their little grove of trees to the main area of the school in front of the gym where the band and guard kids were lounging about on the ground in groups all in various stages of finishing lunch. Grantaire must have been on the lookout for them because he stood up and waved them over to their friend group.

"What the fuck took you so long?! Did you get my texts?" Grantaire sat back down next to Enjolras and glared at them.

"Yes I got your texts, I got all 21 of them!"

"Well you didn't text me back." Grantaire crossed his arms in an overdramatic huff and then narrowed his eyes and wolf whistled. "Do my eyes deceive me or do you two look guilty?"

"Guilty as in, Courfeyrac pinned me to a tree and we kissed and touched until it was nearly impossible to pull away? He should look that way because that's exactly what happened." Chaos broke out at Jehan's news starting with Grantaire.

"FIIIIIIIIIIINAAAAAAAAAAALLYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" roared Grantaire.

"THAT WAS RIGHT IN MY EAR YOU IDIOT!" shouted Enjolras.

Marius did a spit take and sprayed the ground with lemonade and choked, "I didn't know you two were gay!"

"Who DIDN'T know they were gay, took them long enough!" said Éponine. "Now pay up, Bahorel."

"Aw fuck, I thought Courf would never speak up."

"May I help plan the wedding?" teased Cosette.

"What on earth did I miss?" asked Bossuet. He collapsed next to Joly and took deep breaths to recover from his run from the store.

"Courfeyrac and Jehan hooked up!" said Feuilly.

Courfeyrac and Jehan sat down on one side of Grantaire and helped themselves to the food he'd saved. Bossuet grinned and said, "Well, it took you long enough!"

"So we've heard," replied Jehan. "Where were you?"

"Ah, I was at that convenience store across the street. Not because I needed a snack that Feuilly Poppins doesn't have with his gigantic backpack of snacks didn't have but because I needed this." Bossuet held up a small water bottle and handed it to Joly. "I remembered that they sold these over there and got you one because it'll fit in your pocket so you don't have to run off the field during practice if you feel like you should drink something right then."

Joly blushed as he took the small bottle and stuck it in his cargo shorts pocket. "Thank you, it'll help me a lot."

"Your pockets are so big they make me sick," said Éponine.

"Hey, I have shorts like that if you wanted to trade," offered Marius. Éponine's face heated up and went luckily unnoticed by Marius as various people laughed and Cosette groaned.

"If you start wearing girls' pants I'm telling my father on you!"

"Sometimes I feel like he's my father in law already, Cosette."

"Actually," said Courfeyrac. "I feel kind of like he's my dad too, what with you threatening to tell on us all the time."

"Yeah, same here!" chimed in Jehan.

"This is getting a bit weird, Cosette," said Bahorel.

"Everyone's my family to begin with but I have to agree that Valjean feels a lot more like a dad to me than some of my past parents," said Feuilly.

"I meet you people a few hours ago and I feel like a member of the family too," said Musichetta. "Very weird."

"I keep expecting to hear him tell R he's grounded when R talks in class," admitted Joly.

"Har har," said Grantaire. "While I agree that Valjean accidentally adopting us as honorary children through Cosette acting like such a tattletale sister is sweet but unnerving, you all seem to be completely forgetting the fact that Marius was seriously considering wearing Éponine's girly shorts and we would have all gotten to see."

"Alas," lamented Courfeyrac. "An opportunity wasted and gone."

Enjolras leaned forward and smirked at Cosette. "But we all know what we do to show exactly how much we love our parents when they don't let us go on dates, eh?"

"OH DEAR LORD!" roared Jehan. "I HAD THAT SONG STUCK IN MY HEAD FOR WEEKS!"

"What?" asked Musichetta.

"Oh come on Cosette, tell the story, it's a good one," said Courfeyrac.

"Alright." Cosette put an arm around Marius and grinned. "Almost a year ago, at the end of band camp week, I decided to ask Marius out by singing Name of the Game by ABBA at the talent show. I didn't tell my dad that I was going to do it and he got a bit mad when I dedicated the song to him and asked Marius out on a date soon afterwards. My dad said I couldn't go, and that night, just to annoy him, I blasted Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! A Man After Midnight on repeat so loudly that the neighbors heard," she nodded towards Jehan "and he finally let me take Marius out to dinner two hours later."

"Ever since then," said Marius. "Valjean has had a deep seated hatred of all things Mamma Mia and ABBA."

Musichetta had started laughing halfway through the story and she finally recovered enough to ask, "You guys are all neighbors? That sounds like a hell of a cul de sac."

"No no no, oh God no," said Courfeyrac. "Most of us live fairly close to each other, like Cosette, Jehan, Marius, Joly, and I are in the same neighborhood, Combeferre, Bossuet, and Enjolras live near each other but a few blocks away, Bahorel and Grantaire live off even further off-"

"Druggie trafficking area," said Bahorel.

"Yeah, agreed Grantaire. "Nice, but still has some illegal activity going on. Home sweet home."

"And then Feuilly and Éponine are in the same apartment complex kind of near Grantaire's neighborhood. So we're not all neighbors per se, but we're close."

"Also," said Grantaire. "This is going to sound really funny, but the place we all hang out at is Enjolras's house."

"Gotcha." Musichetta lounged back and smirked. "You know, if Valjean hates Mamma Mia so much, we should sing nothing but Mamma Mia at the band talent show at the end of the week."

"You're a genius, you!" said Joly.

Grantaire jumped into the conversation to save Joly the stares. "I think it's a great idea. Hey Enjolras, maybe we could sing Take a Chance on Me."

"How about Does Your Mother Know?"

"Oh haha," growled Grantaire as most people openly laughed. He stretched out in a fake yawn and smiled sweetly at Enjolras as he went to wrap his arm around his shoulders, which would have worked had Enjolras not decided to avoid him by laying down on his stomach which made Grantaire's hand land right on his hip.

There was a beat of silence as everyone stared before Enjolras's face flushed red and he dissolved into embarrassed laughter. Courfeyrac spat out a carrot from his soup and choked and Grantaire thanked his lucky stars that he'd finished eating as he doubled over in mirth and took his hand off Enjolras's hip.

"I haven't seen a plan backfire so badly since Bossuet tried to pack lightly last year and forgot his sleeping bag," said Éponine.

"Yeah Enjolras, it's almost like you wanted or planned that," commented Bahorel. Enjolras would have replied if he wasn't so busy wanting to melt into the pavement.

Combeferre jogged over from the marching field and stood in the middle of the groups of people eating. "LUNCH IS OVER! Valjean told me that we're heading in to practice music now, so if you left your instrument on the field go and grab it and meet in the band room. Except for guard, you guys can get to work on backwards marching and jazz running."

Bahorel swore under his breath as he made a mad dash for the field. The rest of the musicians picked up their instruments (Joly had taken Courfeyrac and Jehan's instruments with him after they'd forgotten them) and went into the band room where everyone got a bit disoriented.

"Is this what you've been doing the whole time we were outside?" asked Grantaire.

Valjean chuckled and said, "No, I've mostly been working out the last details of your guys' dot sheets for the show, which you should have tomorrow, but I needed to get up and stretched my legs."

"Uh huh."

All of the chairs in the room had been stacked against the far wall and all that remained were music stands with their music on them standing where they had previously been sitting. People filed in and gaped at the new furniture arrangement while Valjean smiled at them all from his podium.

"Don't worry everyone; we'll start using chairs again in late autumn when marching season is over. For now, we stand while we play and mark time." He modeled by keeping the platforms of his feet on the floor but lifting his heels in turn to give the illusion that he was walking in place. "This helps you stay in time and get used to the feeling of moving while playing. Once you get your dot sheets tomorrow you'll be marking time with your halts, step offs, and anything else you need to do while playing.

"The plan now is to do a couple of run-throughs of the music, and then sectionals where you all go off with your section to practice."

Valjean spent an hour guiding them through the music and refining the details he could while telling them things to mark in their part if they needed reminders of dynamics or exactly what count their notes ended or started on. He had a mug full of pencils on the floor beside him and tossed out pencils whenever someone admitted they didn't have one and he gave Grantaire one without even checking to see if he'd forgotten to bring one.

Sectionals was an interesting ordeal, in that the band broke off into groups of sections and brought their music stands with them outside and practiced all around the school, far enough away to not be particularly bothered by other sections but close enough to hear them in the distance. Combeferre and the other drum majors went around and gave people help if they needed it and also to let everyone know what dinner was at 6.

Most people quit practicing a little early to loiter around the area in front of the gym and wait for dinner, this time lasagna and salad. Joly spotted Musichetta standing around with other trumpet players and ran over to her. "Hey."

"Hi." She smiled at him and he felt himself sweating more than usual. "I'm Musichetta."

"Hey," he said again. "I'm, um, Joly." He held out his hand and she shook it. "So, what do you think of our school? I mean, you just moved here, yeah?"

"Yep! After sitting with you guys at lunch, I'm pretty sure I moved to the right school. I got fun people, talented people," she eyed him up and down, "cute people."

"You think I'm cute?"

"Yeah. And you think I'm cute. I think I'm cute too, so there's no need to be embarrassed about it."

Joly shuffled his feet and asked, "You noticed when I knocked my music stand over, huh?"

"It was pretty hard to miss. So, to clarify, we both think the other is cute, we want to be friends, so let's just skip the awkwardness and get to know each other with the knowledge that we like each other. It can't be too hard, can it? I mean, you've already knocked over a music stand so I don't think you can top that quite yet so there's no need to worry about being stupid."

"Are you sure? I can be really stupid."

"Joly, I sit next to _Grantaire_. You're fine."

He laughed and gave her a genuine, not nervous smile. "Can I have a hug?"

"Alright, that's a good icebreaker." They hugged each other, Joly nestling against her and Musichetta holding him firmly. "See? We're good."

"You guys are adorable," said Grantaire. "I've witnessed Courfeyrac and Jehan being that couple who hooks up at band camp and now two of my friends who like each other are giving each other a long hug. This is a great summer for being nosy about other people's active love lives. It's also a great summer for eating food because dinner's ready."

Joly stepped away from Musichetta and they all walked over to dish up. Courfeyrac and Jehan put their helpings on the same plate and Marius noticed and decided that it was a good idea to share a plate with Cosette. Enjolras busied himself with getting food and then moving over to sit by the drum majors and avoiding Grantaire. Grantaire stood in the middle of the swarm of activity and wondered if he ought to sit by them and be on his best behavior when he remembered even his best behavior would piss Enjolras off. He plopped down next to Bahorel, Feuilly, and Éponine and sighed as he looked out at the drum major group, the couples eating together, and Bossuet, Joly, and Musichetta in their own little group.

"Life sucks."

"It sure does," agreed Bahorel.

"What is it this time, Enjolras?" asked Éponine.

"He's on the list, yeah. The one person I'm in love with hates my guts."

"Want an Oreo?" asked Feuilly as he dug around in his backpack. "They're doublestuff."

Grantaire nodded and sighed again. They all knew his love was hopeless to the point of not bothering to offer romantic advice because there was nothing that could help. At least, so he thought. Feuilly put the tray of cookies out in front of all of them and looked at Grantaire as he ate.

"You know, R, say Enjolras does like you. If he did, I still don't think he would date you."

"WUFF?" asked Grantaire around a cookie.

Feuilly looked uncomfortable as he continued. "Well, think about all the past relationships you've had. They weren't really relationships, I know, because you just hung out and did things with people who didn't care about you and vice versa, but if you think about it, that's all Enjolras has ever seen you do. If I was in his oblivious shoes, I'd think that you would just want to get into my pants, or maybe be fuck buddies. If you really wanted to show your love for him, maybe mix sweeter things in with your flirting, or things that would matter in a relationship, like those traits you like about him that aren't physical. Maybe you could quit getting with random girls for a couple nights and show him that you're more focused. I mean, imagine if I wanted to date you but I was seeing random people while I continued to say things to you, you'd never in a million years go out with me because I seem unreliable and unstable."

Grantaire frowned. "I never thought about that."

"I know."

"I'll think about it Feuilly, but I like having fun with people who will reciprocate my flirts so I can take my mind off of the guy who bounces everything back at me."

Bahorel grinned and said, "I can't imagine you abstaining for more than two months."

Grantaire punched him in the shoulder and Bahorel delivered a hook punch to Grantaire's side. Grantaire hissed and playfully dove behind Bahorel and started tickling his sides. Bahorel shrieked loud enough to draw stares and laid down on top of Grantaire, squishing him to the ground.

"YOU WIN, I GIVE UP!"

"HAHA, THEN, HA, QUIT TICKLING ME, AAAH!" Grantaire stopped and groaned as Bahorel sat up and let him out from under him. "Fucking damn, I hate being ticklish!"

"It's a good thing I sent the boys home during lunch, otherwise they would have all pounced on you, Bahorel." Éponine stretched and smirked. "If you ever piss me off, know that I'm sending them after you with instructions to fight dirty."

"Oh NO, see what you did Grantaire? I'll bet the whole school is going to know I'm ticklish by the end of the night."

"That's pretty impressive, seeing as the whole school isn't even coming to school yet." Bahorel jabbed Grantaire in the back and Grantaire stuck his tongue out.

Éponine pulled out her phone and checked her messages. "Hey guys, Cosette says she's serious about wanting to make this year's talent show Mamma Mia themed."

"Count me out," said Bahorel.

"Count me in," said Feuilly. "I know exactly what I want to sing."

"Oh, what?"

Feuilly looked away from her and said, "Honey Honey."

"WHAT?" roared Bahorel. "YOU HAVE A CRUSH?"

"No!" snapped Feuilly. Grantaire's eyes widened as he realized that Feuilly must have a crush to snap like that but Feuilly said, "I want to sing it like Sophie in the movie did, you know, about how she wanted to know her dad."

"Oh." For reasons no one could really place everyone always felt awkward when Feuilly mentioned his biological parents. He was perfectly happy with his adopted ones but it was always weird when they got a reminder that they weren't actually his own.

"Well, I'll be a back up vocalist or dancer or whatever you need," offered Grantaire. "We should get another guy to do this with us too, so we have all guys."

"Courfeyrac is our best bet, I think."

"Courfeyrac and I actually have a song we want to do, but it isn't Mamma Mia," said Grantaire. "Well, it's a song with a bit of what we hope is comedy."

"What is it?" asked Éponine.

"I can't tell you."

"Pleeeeeaaaaaase?"

"Nope, it's a surprise."

Enjolras walked over to their group and said, "Combeferre told me to let you know that we're heading out to practice marching."

"How did guard practice go?" asked Feuilly.

"The jazz running needs work." Éponine exchanged a glance with Enjolras and they started laughing in a way that made Grantaire wish he was in guard to share Éponine's experience with Enjolras. "Okay, the jazz running is terrible, but we're not too bad at backwards marching."

"It's a bit more like duck running than jazz running right now," said Éponine.

"Want a snack?" asked Feuilly.

"I just ate dinner," said Enjolras.

"Yeah but my backpack is stuffed and I want to be able to find my clothes."

Grantaire stared. "Your clothes are in there too, with your textbook and snacks?"

"Yeah."

"Feuilly Poppins indeed. Did your shower towel fit in there too?!"

"No that's with my sleeping bag in the gym."

"Good." Grantaire got up and smiled at Enjolras, who looked wary. "You're a great leader, Enjolras, and the guard is lucky to have you."

Enjolras looked dumbfounded as he said, "Thank you, Grantaire."

Feuilly gave Grantaire a thumbs up behind Enjolras's back. Enjolras ran off to round up his guard members with Éponine trailing behind.

The band assembled around the marching field and the now familiar tap tap of Combeferre's cowbell sent them to their spots.

"Alright people, before we start learning how to march backwards, let's review forwards marching. Eight counts for free, then you step off on the LEFT." He guided them through forward marching and was relieved to see it was improving drill by drill, although Javert would have a fit at what he saw.

Combeferre had them in a halt and signaled them to rest with his two taps. "Okay, now for backwards marching. That sounds scary, I know, but it's the same as forwards marching except that you're going backwards on the balls of your feet. Do NOT put your heels on the ground, or you'll fall over and to be honest, a lot of people will laugh at your pain. I know my friends.

He demonstrated marching backwards while saying, "We'll go in our typical eight count segments, which means eight steps per five yards. Don't panic and you'll do fine."

Joly took the water bottle out of his pocket that Bossuet had given him and took a drink, giving Bossuet a grateful smile when he was done and Combeferre a look as if asking for his approval. Combeferre nodded at Joly and continued talking, "So then, eight counts for free, and no panicking or using your heels as you go back. Count with me, everybody count along."

All things considered it could have gone worse. Nobody fell over and most people who were off were only off by a step or two. Combeferre drilled them on backwards marching until a water break, and then spent the rest of the evening making them go forwards and backwards.

"Everyone gather around!" He stood in the center of the field and looked out at the circle of people around him. The sun was nearly down and the warm air mixed with the light breeze was making everyone drowsy. "It's 9 right now, and lights out is at 11. You have two hours to get ready for bed, shower if you want people to like you, play games, socialize, annoy each other, whatever. Put your- STAY HERE BAHOREL! You think I can't see a sousaphone MOVE? Anyways," Combeferre waited for the giggles to die down. "Anyways, put your instruments away in the band room in your lockers. Make sure to get enough rest, sleep if you can, even if you can't just lie there and let your body rest. We have a busy day tomorrow; we get up at 7 and have an hour and a half for getting up and having breakfast. Meet in the band room at 8:30. We're getting our name tags and dot sheets tomorrow, as well as our marching instructor and maybe even our color guard instructor. Be respectful, especially to Javert since he's strict and you'll be seeing him all year since he's an on campus security officer. I think that's all I have to say. Any questions? No? Go away."

The group that went back to the band classroom was a subdued one since everyone felt so tired. People cleaned their instruments and put them into their cases, and a couple of people were tired enough or so attached to them they said, "Goodnight" as they did so.

The gym building was large and had two floors. There was an antechamber right through the doors, and the main gym was located right through the door and was big enough for multiple gym classes to use and for assemblies. Next to that on either side were stairs that went up to smaller gyms, making a left and right wing where the band kids slept. Girls on the left, boys on the right.

Feuilly led the way up to the boys' gym and collapsed onto his sleeping bag. He'd put a sleeping mat under it so it was soft and shielded from the gym floor. He unzipped his backpack and tipped it upside down, letting all of the snacks fall out so he could reach his clothes.

Enjolras sat by Feuilly and spread out an air mattress. "How did all of that fit in there?" he asked as he stared at the pile. He slipped a switch on the mattress and it started inflating itself.

"I have no idea, but I don't think it'll all fit back in." Feuilly stared at the pile of chips, cookies, granola bars, crackers, small bottled juices, mini donuts, powder pouches to mix with water to make drinks, and dried fruit and started laughing. "I HAVE NO IDEA HOW ALL OF THAT FIT!"

Grantaire had left his sleeping bag in a corner and he now carried it over and set it on the other side of Enjolras. "Hey sweetie."

"Oh God." Enjolras buried his face in his hands and asked, "Could you sleep somewhere else? You're distracting."

Grantaire ignored him and instead looked at Feuilly's snack pile. "You could feed the thousands and have some bread and fish left over, Feuilly. How did you get that all in there?"

"I don't know!" Feuilly was still laughing and Grantaire joined in at the absurdity.

"Hey guys, can we grab some?" asked Courfeyrac. He had his arm around Jehan's waist and the two of them looked like they would share whatever they got.

"Please do."

Musichetta jogged into the boys' gym and said, "Hey, Bossuet texted me and said that you have an excess of snacks."

"Yeah, take what you like." Even with people taking what they wanted Feuilly still had a decent pile left over.

Joly went into the bathroom and changed into swim trunks and came back out and grabbed his towel and soaps. Bossuet spotted him and said, "You're taking a shower, right?"

"Yeah."

"Um, I forgot my shampoo this year, could I borrow yours?"

"Sure." Not many people showered on the first night of camp so they had the locker room to themselves after Bossuet changed into swim trunks. They were quiet for awhile until Bossuet went to use Joly's shampoo, stepped into the stream of water on his way over, and reflexively turned it down a bit.

"Hey! That's cold!" Joly cupped his hands and then threw the water he had at Bossuet. Bossuet cupped some water too and tossed it at Joly, and they soon had a full on splash war going on.

Grantaire wasn't one to shower on first days but he wanted a peaceful area to crush his teeth so he walked into the boys' locker room to see Joly and Bossuet standing in their swim trunks having a water fight and giggling.

"Oh my GOD."

"What?" asked Joly. Bossuet took advantage of his turned head and heaped water on him.

"This is the gayest thing I've ever seen. Including Courfeyrac making out with Jehan on his sleeping bag."

"I'm not gay, I'm defending myself!" Joly got revenge by splashing Bossuet even more and the two of them couldn't control their laughter.

"Oh my GOD," repeated Grantaire. He forgot about brushing his teeth and left the room to g and tell everybody what he saw. He walked into the gym and sat down next to Enjolras, who was curled up on his mattress, clearly trying to ignore Grantaire. "Joly and Bossuet are having a water fight in the locker room shower."

Courfeyrac overheard and dethatched his mouth from Jehan's. "Normally I'd join in but I'm a bit busy."

"You guys are gross," said Enjolras.

"Maybe," admitted Jehan. "But we've waited years for this."

Courfeyrac smiled at him and said, "Close your eyes."

"Why?" Jehan did anyway and Courfeyrac got to work on giving each and every one of his freckles a small kiss, starting with the few on his eyelids.

"Okay Enjolras, I agree," said Grantaire. "Gross. The gay from my friends today is overwhelming."

"Joly and Bossuet aren't gay, and you really can't say anything about overwhelming people with affection," said Enjolras. "And actually, forget just Courfeyrac and Jehan, Marius is still downstairs cuddled with Cosette and will be until Valjean or someone tells them they have to go to bed."

"And Éponine is pining for the boy she can't have, right?"

"I'd assume so, although when Musichetta was up here getting snacks I heard something about brainstorming with Éponine, so maybe she isn't moping over Marius."

"Look at this, I've gotten you into gossip."

"Look at that, we went five minutes without you trying to flirt with me."

"Ah, that's why you got into it, to keep the attention off of you. Well, little godling, that isn't going to work."

"Here we go."

"Did you know that trumpet players are particularly good kissers?"

"Did you know that I don't care?"

Grantaire scooted closer to Enjolras and grinned. "I hope you can get used to spending time with me, Enjolras, because our favorite drum major told me that you and Éponine are going to do some choreographed swordplay, and even if it's fake, guess who's going to get to teach you two fencing basics?"

Enjolras stared at him. "No."

"Oh yes, actually."

"I'm going to kill Combeferre."

"I'd be more worried about Javert, since he'll be the one yelling at you to get your part right, and you ought to thank Combeferre for remembering that I'm a fencer and a dancer and perfect for the job."

"I hate everything," muttered Enjolras as he lay down on his side facing Feuilly. Feuilly poked Enjolras in the nose with such an innocent expression that Enjolras couldn't help laughing.

Joly and Bossuet came back wearing pajamas and drying their hair off. "What's so funny, Enjolras?" asked Joly.

"Feuilly booped his nose and didn't get throttled," said Grantaire. "Also, you will never be able to convince me that having a water fight in the locker room isn't the least bit gay. You guys have a bromance. I can smell it."

"It's called peach shampoo," said Bossuet.

Grantaire rolled over and muffled his chuckles into his pillow. "_It's called peach shampoo_."

Marius came in and looked depressed. "I miss Cosette."

"You saw her two minutes ago!" said Combeferre as he came up the stairs from behind Marius.

"I HATE YOU COMBEFERRE!" shouted Enjolras. Combeferre jogged over and looked down at Enjolras.

"Exactly why do you hate me, best friend forever?"

"You know why." Enjolras jerked his head towards Grantaire.

"Oh yeah. You guys will have fun, I'm sure of it." Combeferre settled a few people away from Enjolras and pulled out a book to read from his backpack. Enjolras let out an annoyed huff and Combeferre grinned. "Behave yourselves, children."

Joly set up his sleeping bag and mat and yawned. "You know Bossuet, I guess we must have looked really weird splashing each other."

"It's what friends do when they've known each other so long they can't see a life without the other," replied Bossuet. "You do stupid things together and nothing makes you question it because it's natural no matter how bromancy it may look."

Joly gave him one of his genuine smiles that always makes the person receiving want to melt into a puddle because of how sweet he looks. He crawled into his sleeping bag and closed his eyes once he got settled. "Goodnight."

"Going to sleep before the lights are out?"

"It's best if I fall asleep as quickly as possible so I quit thinking about fevers and strained muscles."

Bossuet sat directly next to Joly and put a hand on his shoulder. "You can always talk to me about your worries, Joly. Where do you feel like you have strain?"

"Gastrocnemius," murmured Joly.

"Alright, that's understandable, want to stretch it out? Will it make you feel better?"

"I hate being the weird kid who does extra stretches and takes a multivitamin every day and panics about getting dehydrated."

"Joly, it's fine. Look, this doesn't really look weird." Bossuet stood up, faced the wall, put a foot back and stretched out his calf. "See? No stares, no one cares."

Joly got up and stretched out and sighed. "You're right. I was just being silly." He looked around the gym and saw no one looking their way. "Huh, I wonder how Bahorel's asleep already."

"I wish I knew. I feel exhausted." Bossuet laid down and snuggled into his sleeping bag. Joly laid down too and faced Bossuet. "Goodnight, Joly."

"Goodnight."

The gym door opened and Valjean walked in, "Okay everyone, lights out!" He flicked the lights out from the switch by the door and said, "I'll be sleeping downstairs with a few of our parent volunteers, if you hear the door open, don't worry, one of us is checking on you. We'll be able to hear any talking or loud noises since it carries down the stairs so please be quiet and go to sleep."

For awhile the only sounds to be heard was the rustling of sleeping bags and the heating system running through the airvents.

Enjolras's arm was falling asleep so he rolled over and found himself facing Grantaire. Being next to Grantaire wasn't something he wanted, so he tried to move away without drawing much attention to himself. He grabbed the sides of his air mattress and jumped forwards a few inches. The gym echoed with the soft thump but no one seemed particularly bothered. He did it again and kept it up every few minutes until he was three feet away from Grantaire.

Grantaire narrowed his eyes in the semi darkness and figured out what Enjolras was doing. He slithered his way over to where Enjolras was like he was in a game of caterpillar and smirked at the look on Enjolras's face. Enjolras moved forward again with a few more thumps and Grantaire kept following him. After ten minutes of this Grantaire decided to risk talking.

"What's the matter, blondie? Do I annoy you in my sleep?"

"YES because you SNORE!" hissed Enjolras.

"HAHAHAHAHAAAAA!" Joly gave in to his laughter and let it out, which made everyone else laugh too. The echoing thumps of Enjolras moving across the gym combined with Enjolras's explanation was too much for Joly to handle quietly and he roared loud enough to wake Bahorel.

Valjean opened the door and asked, "Are you laughing in your sleep again, Joly? Quiet everyone! Are you alright?"

Joly smothered his giggles into his pillow and tried very hard to not look at Enjolras or Grantaire. Valjean, however, spotted them and let out a short laugh of his own. "How did you get halfway across the gym? Actually, I don't care. Just shut up and go to sleep. I would think that the girls would be the giggly ones but it's always you guys. Now goodnight!"

Enjolras turned to Grantaire and tried to glare at him but wound up smiling instead when Grantaire stuck his tongue out at him.

"I hate you, R. So, so much right now."

"I love you too, Apollo-ette."

This year was going to be a long one, and no one wanted it any other way.


	4. Chapter 4

I'm at a friend's house and something called an all nighter is happening before we catch the flight so I'm doing an update before I go with  
his help. With that in mind this is a short sort of mini chapter but with how long the last one was it balances out. His notepad is a bit weird  
so I hope this shows up okay. Also there's no spellchecker so fun times (hence the lack of accents).

Quick review responses! (you guys got to this pretty fast)

**Adam:** Yeah, that isn't the intent. The reason why there seems to be a large percentage of gay guys is because I do have the straight  
pairings, Marius/Cosette, Musichetta/Joly (I'm still unsure if Bossuet is going to be in this as the third person and if so if he's with Joly and  
Musichetta or just Musichetta but either way he's still Joly's very close friend and R would tease them about their closeness whether  
they're gay or not because he's R), and Eponine/Feuilly. The other guys who would be with girls, Combeferre and Bahorel, would be with  
OCs, who I'm going to be building up as characters but it takes longer and so the actual Les mis characters like Courf/Jehan and the  
ongoing R going after Enjolras comes out quicker by default because they're established characters and the female OCs who may or may  
not be with Bahorel and Combeferre will need to have time to develop. So yeah, offense was not my intent but that's why it seems to be a  
high precent, for now I'm not putting the OCs in too much because people tend to have an intense hatred of OCs so I'll have to be careful  
with them and not have them going into relationships with established characters too quickly. I know that not everyone needs romance or a  
relationship, and not everyone might be, but I'm trying to say that I'm working with the characters I have, most of which are male, and I'm  
trying to strike a balance where yeah some guys are together but not all of course, but at the same time OCs are typically viewed as ba  
news but I need them to make the band more band like and not just Les Amis and it'd be natural for outside intraction from other characters  
and maybe even crushes or romance, but I'm just very wary of OCs. This got kinda long and rambly but I'm viewing it on two lines on  
wordpad so I can't really reread this easily so I hope that made sense.

Ah, I'm a christian too, and even though by this you can tell we have some different beliefs going on, I totally understand.

**Guest** (guard captain) I myself was not in guard and my brainstrom band buddy who's helping me with this plays trumpet and didn't do guard  
either. What we're doing with gaurd is what we saw, in that they marched with us off and on (like in the mornings they were off learning flag  
or other prop stuff but they marched with us in the afternoon and sometimes evening). We have pretty good ideas of how our band worked  
with them but neither of us were actually in guard so it will probably seem a bit off. With most of the characters not being in guard, I haven't  
been focusing much on them. The same goes for Feuilly in pit like, I won't be bringng too much pit stuff into this because Feuilly is one  
character apart from what everyone else is doing. With the fact that I myself wasn't in guard and that it's two of Les Amis versus the  
majority in the band I haven't been very attentive to guard details and I apologize. I have a few guard friends but I'm rarely ever able to talk  
to them at all. As tme goes on they'll be spending less time with marching drill and more with flags and sabers and any other stuff they'd  
need starting here. As far as the duel thing goes, I did it like solos/large parts have been done in band/drama in that everyone is offered it  
and those who want it, if there are too many, would then audition for it but if not then the person/people who fit the right number would have  
it. I didn't know that in guard it would be done differently. Yeah, this is more of a competition band, and not so much a band for football  
games, although they will do some of them but it isn't their main focus. If anything the games are like rehearsal or practice but with an  
audience to prepare for competitions. I mean, the music and the show is cool and could get people riled up but they aren't really going for  
that as much as going for competitions.

If anyone else reviewed as anon, sorry, I'm writing this and the internet is shut off on my friend's laptop so I'm going by what I saw earlier  
today (I'm taking this, putting it on my memory key, going onto his family computer and updating once it's free and not checking back here  
for more anons to reply to).

**ARYJFGBCFIJJG**

"Rise and shine, ladies!" Cosette rolled over and groaned into her pillow at the invasive noise of someone's mom waking them up.

"Come on Cosette, we have to go down and pitch the songs to the guys!" said Musichetta. She stretched and tried to sit up but got tangled  
in her sleeping bag and fell over. "You'll probably beat me to breakfast at this rate."

"Nah, she's a slowpoke." Eponine was already up and getting dressed. "I'm going to go and scope out the food and I'll come back with a  
report. Be right back."

"I'm pretty sure we're having cereal, hot or cold is your choice since we have oatmeal and regular cereal. There's fruit too." The speaker,  
Holly, was already dressed and had been wandering around the gym.

"Must be nice being a drum major, you know eveything that's going on," said Musichetta. "Oh hey guys!" She pulled a bandana and tied it  
on her head. "I put the band in bandana."

Cosette peered into Musichetta's bag and asked, "Do you have any more of those? That's actually a really good idea ince it isn't a hat but  
it'll keep the sweat off of my face."

"Geez what's taking Eponine so long?" Musichetta left the gym in her pajamas and could hear Eponine screaming by the time she got  
halfway don the stairs.

The doors to the gym building were open to let in fresh air and Eponine was standing outside screeching, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU  
SLEPT ON THE ROOF?"

"It was just over on the math building sis! That's one floor up. We were safe and we didn't have to go home so it all worked out."

"GO HOME RIGHT NOW! Do you have any idea how much trouble you got yourself and your brothers into, Gavroche Henri Thenardier?  
Do you have any idea how much trouble you've got ME into? Take your bus fare and go home RIGHT. NOW."

"Can't we have breakfast first?" asked one of the younger ones.

Eponine sighed and closed her eyes. "Fine. We're dead anyways." She gloomily took her little brothers into the breakfast area and dished  
them up oatmeal and fruit. Musichetta followed behind Eponine and got her own food, unsure of what to say to make Eponine feel better  
but still staying close for silent moral support.

The boys took longer to wake up that morning. Half of the girls already had breakfast by the time Marius ran downstairs to meet up with  
Cosette. "Hey Cosette!"

"You're usually up before me, Marius. What took so long?"

"We got to bed a little later last night, since Grantaire and Enjolras decided to play a long game of slow motion caterpillar." He got himself a  
bowl of Cheerios and tossed banana slices and strawberry pieces in it. "Of course than Joly started laughing because of how weird  
Enjolras was being and then everyone else started laughing too because Joly's laugh is more contagious than the flu and we all lost  
something like half an hour of sleep."

"Poor thing." She pecked him on the cheek and found them a spot outside to watch the sun climb into the sky. "Do you want to do anything  
in the talent show, maybe something Mamma Mia themed?"

"I think your dad has enough of a problem connected to me and Mamma Mia for that too do much good. I'll just sit and watch you, alright?"  
He leaned against Cosette and spilled some milk on himself. "Ah, yeah, that was definitely a me thing to do."

Cosette pulled out a napkin and cleaned his shirt off as best she could. "I love you anyways."

"I figured you did, even after I fell out of the tree in your yard when I was trying to rescue Joly's cat you still liked me enough to overlook it."

"What about my cat?" asked Joly. He sat by Cosette and swalled his daily multivitamin with a swig of milk from his cereal.

"Oh, it was about that time I was saving her and fell out of a tree."

Cosette wrapped an arm around Marius's waist. "To be honest, the way you fell was more endearing than alarming."

"No, it was very alarming!" said Joly.

While everyone else was participating in small talk and eating, Eponine frantically paced around the school campus holding her untouched  
bowl of cereal. "Shit shit shit SHIT! Oh no oh no what to do I'm so dead!"

"Hey."

"AH!" she tossed her bowl up in the air and watched it land and spill all over the sidewalk in front of the building where Gavroche had slept  
and where Courfeyrac and jehan had gotten together the previous day. "Oh hey Feuilly. Sorry about that, um, you just startled me and  
ooooh God I'm dead."

"Why?"

"Gavroche, Simon, and Dru got the idea to sleep on top of that building last night instead of going home, and once I get home I'll be in huge  
trouble, even if it wasn't my fault! I gave them bus fare yesterday and a schedule, they were SUPPOSED to go home but they slept here  
instead and my father is not someone you want to meet in a rage." Eponine leaned against the wall and shook on the verge of tears. "I  
don't blame them for not going home I mean, the number of times I've had to annonymously call the child protection services just to get  
them dentist and doctor appointments, new clothes when they were wearing rags, school supplies, EVERYTHING because our parents  
would rather spend the money elsewhere just, UGH! We're all still tgether because I don't call often enough to get them moved away but  
enough to get them help when I can. When I turn eighteen and graduate high school, I'm moving out and suing for custody of them and  
Azelma if she wants to come along and there's no way any court in their right mind can tell me no."

Feuilly hugged her and she burst into tears. "That's a lot of stress for you to handle, but take it from someone who's had a lot of guardians,  
you'll make a great mom for them. They already know and love you and once they're out of there it'll get better. You're going to have a  
huge amount of resposibility but I think you've got the bulk of it down already. You'll be okay, just take deep breaths with me, okay?"

"Hmmhmm." She left her breakfast on the walkway and let Feuilly hold her until she stopped crying. "Thank Feuilly, you're always so  
understanding. Like, the advice you gave to Grantaire last night was great. And you can even stand Joly going on about whatever new  
sicknesses he's read up on lately and how he's caught him and you're just a godsend."

"Always here to help. Anything for my friends."

Enjolras tiredly walked out to where Eponine was hugging Feuilly and asked, "Am I interrupting anything?"

"No." Feuilly backed off from Eponine and said, "You look dead."

"I feel it. Guess what Eponine? Grantaire is going to be helping us learn our duel."

"That's cool."

"But he snores."

Feuilly snorted and Eponine raised her eyebrows. "That has nothing to do with his fencing techniques."

"I know, but I hardly slept last night, or rather I slept badly."

"I think I have some instant coffee powder upstairs in that pile of snacks and stuff."

"I love you," said Enjolras in a flat voice. He dragged his feet and slowly made his way to the boys' gym. "Hey Grantaire," drawled Enjolras  
in the same flat voice.

Grantaire looked up from his music and orange juice. "I'm all out of flattery this morning because I'm working for a change, so I'll just have  
you know that you look like a wreck."

"At least you're honest." Enjolras rumaged around in Feuilly's stash of snacks and found the coffee powder. "This is fucking decaf."

"That means it'll taste awful, which means you'll be awake, which you obviously must need if you're swearing at something Feuilly did or  
has."

"You're right."

"Are you okay?!"

"No."

"What happened?"

"It's a mix of your snoring, my physical exhaustion from yesterday, the stress I have from Javert showing up today, getting new dot sheets  
which always makes me nervous, and I just feel awful because of it."

"Sorry about my snores."

"Well, it was actually you and Bossuet and Pascal and some other guy, oh yeah, Brendan, but I'm mostly blaming you since you were next  
to me."

"It's always nice to know that stuff isn't entirely my fault."

Enjolras went downstairs to get hot water for his coffee and Grantaire followed him down with his juice glass. "Do I really bother you that  
much?" asked Grantaire. "With the snoring and all, or is that just my waking annoyingness seeping into your opinion of my sleeping  
annoyingness?"

"Well," Enjolras lowered his voice. "You're worse when you've been drinking."

Grantaire stumbled over his feet and nearly dropped his drink. "How would you know?"

"Do you know the number of times I've found you on the passed out on my car, on the dining room table, on the patio, or even sleeping on  
the stairs in my house because you wander over when you're wasted? It's ridiculous the things you do and it's ridiculous the things I tell my  
parents so they'll believe you're chronically ill with stupid or something but not drunk or high or whatever it is you really are."

"To give my drunken self some credit, you're the only person I know with carpeted stairs."

Enjolras made himself a cup of coffee and hummed as he drank. "This stuff is pretty good." He turned to Grantaire and said, "I'm gonna say  
something I probably wouldn't say if I was feeling more wide awake."

"Oh boy."

"I think I wouldn't be so opposed to spending time with you if you got yourself into a position outside of just marching season where you  
can stop apologizing to me for drinking or getting high or doing something harmful to yourself. Maybe if I could know that I'm always talking  
to you, Grantaire, and not some impaired version of you, I wouldn't care whether you were asleep on the coffee table or in the guest  
bedroom if I knew you were sober. I would know you're actually the you I see three months out of the year and not drunk off your ass, but  
you don't care enough to ever be sober outside of marching band because you'd be unable to work while for the rest of the year you can  
skate by in a haze. Just-" Enjolras downed the rest of his drink. "Grow up for a change, actually give a damn about your life or others and  
then see if I'll be around you more."

"Wow." Grantaire tossed out the remainder of his juice and stared at Enjolras. "I knew you didn't like me and my habits, but man, I didn't  
think it went that deep. Or that you think it's a lack of caring on my part causes me to drink."

"Am I wrong?"

"Believe what you want." Grantaire shoved Enjolras out of his way and yelled, "Hey Bahorel, want to spar?"

"NO!" Valjean seemed to appear out of nowhere as he got in between them and said, "First off, I can't allow any fights here because you  
could get hurt and secondly, you're suposed to have your instruments out in seven minutes."

Courfeyrac and Jehan walked past Grantaire but Courfeyrac pulled Jehan back. "Hey R, what happened?"

"Enolras is a jerk when he's tired and if he wasn't Enjolras I'd punch him in the face." Grantaire strode off before Courfyrac could question  
him further. He took a turn away from the band room and absentmindedly sank into a wall sit against a wall. The reason, he knew, why  
Enjolras's words hurt so much wasn't because of how candid he was, but because they were absolutely right and Grantaire deserved the  
harshness. Enjolras's speech was a splash of cold water to him and he felt sick. Why did he think Enjolras would care for an addict, or that  
he, one always in conrol of himself and his life and goals, could ever understand what Grantaire went though as an addict? The only  
reason why he could manage to stay sober during most of marching band was bcause he could wind up killing himself if he tried to work  
hard all day long while intoxicated.

Grantaire stood up and stretched his legs out. There was a trumpet section inside waiting for their ugly addict of a leader and he'd out  
enough effort into going over the music that he may actually do them some good.

The majority of the students already had their instruments out when Grantaire walked in, and he noted with dread that the guard members  
were milling around the edges of the room with flags and sabers out. He spotted Enjolras and made a huge effort to fight back his  
compass-like instincts to turn towards Enjolras while Valjean stood and got their attention.

"Good morning guard and band, ladies and gentlemen, those of us who are awake and those of us who are spritifually in their beds, I have  
a couple of people to introduce to you. First is our lovely color gaurd instructor, Colette Day, who will be assisting our guard, and our  
returning marching instructor and old friend of mine, Javert."

Colette grinned and waved, "Hey, everybody! I'm Colette, and even though I'm mostly going to be with the guard, any of you can come and  
ask me questions, alright? Guard, follow me outside to the gym and we'll get started on some flagwork."

"I'm Javert," said Javert from beside Valjean. "I will be taking no nonsense from any of you and unlike the guard that just left, youn will be  
picking up your nametags before you go. Also, I wlll not tolerate anyone marching in pajamas, or a youth fashion that is supposed to look  
like pajamas." He eyed Musichetta who looked down and realized whe was still dressed in light blue flannel pajamas.

"Um, sorry about that."

"What's your name?"

"Musichetta."

"Hmmhmm." He found her nametag and tossed it at her. "Meet us on the field and be prepared to do 25 push ups, and perhaps try looking in  
a mirror in the morning. The rest of you, come up hen I call your name and don't keep me waiting."


	5. Chapter 5

**At last, an update!**

**My apologies for taking so long, I fell off of a galloping horse in Costa Rica, was fine for awhile, but when I got back here I was getting a lot of aches and pains in my back and what do you know, I have 2 out places in my back and my neck is out pretty badly too. So I've been dealing with headaches and not sleeping well and general blarg.**

**ANNOUNCEMENT: I am leaving this Wednesday to go to Florida and I'll be back in 2 weeks. This is relevant because I'll be with my mom and step dad, and that means little to not computer time so no updates for awhile, and even when I'm back they're coming to live here with my dad and I so that means that from now on, my updates will likely be typed up on my phone and will be shorter than they have been.**

**Anon: Oh my gosh I actually feel super bad about that. When I was picking characters to put in the 4 character slots I was going through and picking ones as I saw them that I knew would have major parts as the story went on, and I clicked "Enjolras, Éponine, Feuilly, Joly" without realizing how Enjolras and Éponine would look like next to a "friendship and romance" category of fic and that was bad of me for doing that and being misleading and disappointing you Enjonine shippers. I don't have plans for that in here, Enjolras and Éponine are good friends but nothing more than that. I changed it so Marius and Cosette show up, I know they haven't been major so far but they shall be in the future (it's pretty hard to pick just 2 to show up there since I'm trying to include lots of people).**

**Without further ado, the update!**

"I can't believe none of you told me I was in my pajamas," said Musichetta. She scowled as she looked at the complicated looking list of coordinates that had come with her nametag in a plastic pouch around her neck. "What the hell is going on here?" she looked at the marching field and the few people who were milling around looking at their nametags like she was as they waited for everyone to make it outside.

"We all thought you knew you were in your pajamas," replied Grantaire. "And that is your dot sheet and it isn't as scary as you think. This column is the measure number in the music, that column is the number of counts this set is whether you're moving or in a halt, and this over here is the coordinates of where you should be on the marching field from the start of it to the end of it. It makes more sense when we're standing on the field looking at it and to be honest I don't even think we're getting to these today because we still have to learn sideways marching and jazz running."

"What?"

"It'll be fine, trust me." Grantaire was saved from having to explain it on the spot when Courfeyrac and Jehan came up behind them, Courfeyrac looking flustered and Jehan looking like he was trying very hard to not laugh.

"No you see, you make my heart burn I mean I love you like heartburn- no! Um-" Jehan's smile widened as Courfeyrac kept up trying to say something romantic and getting drastically worse and worse, "I need pills with you NO DAMN IT you set fire to the sun you set _me_ on fire NO THIS ISN'T THAT FUNNY STOP LAUGHING GRANTAIRE!" In Grantaire's defense, Jehan and Musichetta were laughing too but Grantaire had taken it the hardest. "You have no right to laugh at someone else's bad attempts at romantic lines, monsieur 'Would you like a candlelit game of Twister?'"

"I was drunk!" gasped Grantaire.

Jehan, still smiling, kissed Courfeyrac on the cheek and said, "Don't worry, you'll get better, and if not I'll get a good chuckle out of whatever you do."

"My romantic things are much better when planned out and not on the spot, although I think they would mean more on the spot. Shoot." Courfeyrac still looked disappointed in himself until Jehan kissed him properly on the lips and the two of them seemed to forget that everyone else was there.

Enjolras, Joly, and Bossuet arrived and Enjolras groaned at the sight of Jehan and Courfeyrac kissing again. "I'm supposed to grab Grantaire and Combeferre to help with the duel and ugh, do you two ever quit?"

"Don't worry," said Grantaire. "Once they get past the 'AWWWWILOVEYOUILOVEYOUILOVEYOU' stage they're be much bearable. By more the way, I hate your guts."

"What did I do?"

Grantaire turned and shrieked so highly that Jehan jumped and everyone aside from Enjolras uncomfortably looked away and tried to pretend they couldn't hear Grantaire. "YOU REALLY DON'T KNOW? 'Grow up for a change, actually give a damn about your life or others', huh! You think that had no effect on me? You think I don't care? How about you actually care about other people before you jump on them and make them feel like shit Enjolras!"

Enjolras's face paled and he dipped his head down, at last seeming to wake up enough to know he'd hurt Grantaire. "I'm sorry Grantaire, I shouldn't have said that-"

"I don't care. I don't care if you're sorry for saying it because you actually think it's true. You're not sorry and I don't even know why I think of you as a friend if you're going to treat me like this and think me so callous and cold." There was a crowd gathered around the two of them now forming something of a loose circle, and their friends all seemed stuck between interrupting or letting them sort it out.

"You know what? FINE! I tried to apologize and be nice and you won't accept it. No matter what I say you won't listen. Whatever. Fuck you too."

Javert had an uncanny habit of being able to appear right when someone within 30 yards of him dropped an f-bomb and he walked into the scene right as Enjolras shouted it. "Language, Enjolras!" He sighed and turned towards Grantaire, who widened his eyes at being addressed directly when not doing anything wrong. "We'll be working on basic drill this morning while the guard learns some flagwork, but you, Combeferre, Enjolras, and Éponine need to get started on that duel. Find somewhere out of my hair to work."

"Oh no- no can't we do this later?"

"No."

Combeferre helpfully stepped in and beckoned Enjolras and Grantaire to come with him as he led them away from the marching field to where the guard was learning how to toss flags in the air.

Colette was standing in front of the group holding a flag at an angle around 45 degrees saying, "Left hand is higher up and gripping over the flag, right hand is under and lower, push down with your left and up with the right-" the flag flew into the air and she expertly caught after a few spins "Ta da! Caught. It's a fairly simple concept but takes some practice. Upperclassmen, help the freshmen and other new people out, I have to deal with these guys over here. Éponine come with me." Colette picked up two sabers and handed one to Éponine and one to Enjolras. "So, we have our two duelists, our senior drum major, and our fencer slash dancer. Where do you want to start, Combeferre?"

Combeferre subconsciously adjusted his glasses so that they were in exactly the same place as before. "Well, Grantaire should teach you two some swordplay and dancing tips so he can to go back to regular practice sooner. The idea with learning how to dance a waltz is that while you won't be doing exactly that, your feet will be moving to that sort of rhythm and the duel is on the balls of your feet and sort of bouncy and quick like a dance, so he should start on that first."

"Um, okay." Grantaire looked around at all of them and asked, "Does anyone here know how to dance?" Enjolras and Éponine shook their heads and Combeferre shrugged. Colette raised her hand and Grantaire nodded. "Cool. May I lead?"

"Sure." Grantaire stepped forward and put a hand on Colette's waist and held her other hand. They began to move, staying carefully apart from each other, to demonstrate what Enjolras and Eponine were going to learn. Grantaire rambled on about the steps and patterns as he went and he noticed Enjolras folding his arms and narrowing his eyes as if to say 'Don't do it. Don't you dare Grantaire.'

'Oh Enjolras," thought Grantaire. 'Now I _have_ to flirt with her.'

Grantaire paid attention to his steps and once he felt certain he wasn't going to trip himself up he smiled sweetly at Colette and said to her and the group, "Something about dancing that's so important is that it's all about energy and passion, finding the spirit of the music and letting it move through your body. It's not strict like marching even though it's just as structured, it's about letting go and giving yourself to something beyond words." He pulled Colette closer to him and watched her widen her eyes. "It's about breaking the rules a little bit. Artfully, of course."

She nodded in approval of Grantaire's words and regained her comfort. "A very nice way of putting it, Grantaire. You live by your words, I can tell. Your dancing is surprisingly good."

"You're a marvelous dancer yourself. Are you single?" asked Grantaire.

Colette obviously thought he was joking and laughed openly in his face. "Haha, oh honey, I am but I'm 20. Bit too old to date a student."

"But if you're in college then we're both students, so, you know, maybe not?" Grantaire smirked as Enjolras groaned and Éponine tried not to laugh.

"You're adorable but you remind me of my brother, so I'm afraid the answer is no."

It was Grantaire's turn to laugh and he said, "Okay, fair enough, can't get a better turn off than that. If you want my number though I'll give it to you, in case you want to platonically get coffee." Enjolras looked like he needed to melt down the storm drain and away from Grantaire as Grantaire and Colette quit dancing. "So did everyone get the gist?"

"I was too busy trying to stomach the fact that you were flirting with my instructor," said Enjolras. "Forgive my friend, he's just, um, sort of, well, Grantaire. He has some issues." Grantaire glared at Enjolras and silently snarled at him and was glad to see Enjolras glare back.

Colette waved him off, "Heh, no he's fine."

"Hey, I learned something," said Éponine, jumping in to save Grantaire further embarrassment. "I think I know what I'm doing, like I got the steps down and all, could I try it with someone?"

"How about," started Combeferre. "You dance with Colette and make sure you've got it handled while I talk to Grantaire and Enjolras separately. It shouldn't take too long." He took Enjolras and Grantaire, both looking ashamed of themselves, to a secluded spot deeper on campus. "Okay you two, not only for the work we're supposed to be doing but for the sake of your friendship, tell me what happened and resolve whatever it is right now."

Combeferre's voice had the effect of soothing them and neither one wanted to get out of control in front of Combeferre, so they both tried to behave. Enjolras shuffled his feet and said, "I hurt Grantaire earlier, I then tried to apologize, and he blew up at me and wouldn't accept it."

"Excuse me?" Grantaire fought the urge to start yelling again and avoided looking at Enjolras. "I quote 'blew up' because he wasn't sorry, not really. Maybe he's sorry for saying what he did but it doesn't change how he feels about me, and that's what hurt. And it still does. And until his mind changes and he actually feels what he said isn't true I won't forgive him."

Combeferre let out a long suffering sigh and said, "Jumping to wrong conclusions one assumption after another. I know both of you, and neither of you have belligerent or hateful things in your heart towards the other. You disagree on many things, you're different, and your lifestyles clash to some degree but I can guarantee that Enjolras does not think you heartless Grantaire. He just doesn't understand what you go through and why you do what you do. Perhaps tell him about yourself so he can be a bit more educated in this matter and then let him come to his own conclusion, validated and informed?"

Grantaire bit his lip and looked scared. Combeferre put a hand on his shoulder and said, "I'm asking a lot, I'm practically asking you to lay your heart out for Enjolras to see, but you need to do it. It'll be okay." Grantaire nodded and looked down at the ground as he talked.

"Well, okay, um, the main thing was me drinking and smoking, but mostly drinking. I-I have depression, and I have a lot of stress, and my life can get hard and frustrating and when my art and other hobbies aren't enough to get me through the day or relieve my stress I drink or smoke. It was just that for awhile and it was pretty manageable and rare but of course I got addicted too, and that makes it really hard for me to not smoke or drink which piles more stress on so I have cravings and so much going on emotionally that I need to and it's sort of a never ending cycle and staying sober is nearly impossible. I care about you all a lot, without you guys as my friends I'd be even more lost, probably not in band anymore, and more of a mess than I already am. It can be hard to get through any given day sober or not but with all of you I'm inspired to do better and work harder even if I fail so much. You're all so wonderful and I owe you so much and I try to be someone worth being around because I love you all but I don't know how to be someone and I don't know what I'm doing and I know I'm a failure but if there's anything that I could be proud of, it's my heart. I have something noble or soft or loving in there for you guys that can maybe make me a person and-and," he felt a few tears in his eyes and hurriedly wiped them away. "There is good in life and I found it in my friends, and to call me heartless or to imply that I don't care about anything because I do some stupid, selfish things targets the one part about me that's remotely worth anything and I'm sorry." Grantaire brought his hand up to his face again and wiped away more tears and let out a small sniffle.

Enjolras felt his arms twitch and he longed to hold Grantaire. Combeferre noticed and said, "I saw that twitch Enjolras, and if you don't hug Grantaire I will whack you over the head with your own flag." Enjolras nodded and carefully walked up to Grantaire and held him, at first hesitantly and then earnestly as Grantaire shook and sobbed on his shoulder.

"Grantaire." Enjolras felt sick as Grantaire's small and miserable cries could be heard even though he was burying his face in Enjolras's shirt. "I can't say I'm sorry enough. What I said was wrong and untrue and I would do anything to take it back. I didn't understand what you went through and I assumed things about you that were false and hurtful and I don't deserve to be forgiven for them. I saw you at your most vulnerable and scorned you for something that is not your fault." Enjolras closed his eyes and thought of all those times Grantaire had shown up drunk at his home and managed to feel worse. "You trust me. You let me see you at your worst and when you had failed and I should have been helping you and trying to find out more and being supportive but what I did was look down on you. I'm sorry. Um." Enjolras opened his eyes and patted Grantaire's back. "Next time you're having trouble or you feel tempted or you just need company, can you come to me before you start drinking so I can help you from there?"

Grantaire lifted his head up and stared at Enjolras. "You would do that for me?"

Enjolras smiled and used a hand to play with Grantaire's curls. "I do some stupid, selfish things too but I care deeply for you as well." Grantaire returned his smile and the whole world looked brighter for it. "You know, I was kidding yesterday when I said we should do 'Does Your Mother Know?' for the talent show but I think it'd not only make a fantastic finale but it's also a nice little inside joke for the few of us who saw you get laughed at by a 20 year old girl who's way out of your league. What do you think?"

"We should do it, absolutely!" Grantaire's smile got wider and he gave Enjolras one last squeeze and stood back from him. "I can see Valjean's face already."

Enjolras chuckled and said, "Ready to head back? Your eyes aren't too terribly bloodshot."

"Actually," said Combeferre. "I need to talk to you for a second in private Enjolras. Is that alright, Grantaire?"

"Yeah sure, I'll see you two in a bit. I gotta go make sure they're doing everything right." Grantaire gave them a cheery wave before leaving them alone.

Enjolras sighed once Grantaire left and turned to Combeferre. "Did you know all of that?"

"I did. He never told me but I've been watching closely for awhile now. Depression and addiction are serious problems that can hide themselves well and appear less potent than they actually are. Joly and I keep close tabs on him and try to help out the best we can, usually in subtle ways so he doesn't shove us away."

"That makes sense, Joly spends a lot of time with him." Enjolras looked down in shame. "I feel terrible. Even without Grantaire's problems I had no right to treat him the way I did."

Combeferre wordlessly hugged Enjolras and made Enjolras feel a lot better than he deserved. "I don't deserve to be hugged right now, Combeferre."

"If you're worried about Grantaire's forgiveness or happiness, know that he's already forgiven you and that it'll be easier on the both of you if you learn your lesson and let it go."

"You're right."

"I usually am, if I do say so myself."

Enjolras let himself be held in Combeferre's firm yet gentle arms. "Thank you. Thank you for being a friend I can rely on for support and also to call me out on my errors. And thank you for being someone I can give a hug to without making anything awkward."

Combeferre hid a smirk and whispered into Enjolras's ear, "Actually, when the sunlight illuminates your silhouette against the sky and sets your golden hair on fire, I instantly forget myself and feel moths in my stomach and-"

"NO STOP IT!" Enjolras collapsed against Combeferre and let out loud shouts of laughter that drowned out Combeferre's own.

Combeferre and Enjolras walked back to the spot where Grantaire and Éponine were supposed to be and found them already in something of a duel with Grantaire singing the Waltz of Treachery as they play fought.

"Da da daaaaaaa, da da daaaaaaa, da da da duh da da DUT- DA DAAAAAAAAAAA- oh hey guys!" Grantaire stopped and Éponine playfully poked him in the side with her sword. "Hey, that's cheating! Anyways, what's new with you two?"

"You need to teach Enjolras how to do that, and then we're heading back to join the rest of the band," said Combeferre. "Is Colette happy with how this turned out?"

"Yeah, she's just back with the rest of the guard," said Éponine. She tossed the saber at Enjolras and he caught it. "Grantaire's a good teacher."

Enjolras gave Grantaire an encouraging smile and said, "Okay. Teach."

Grantaire got to work showing Enjolras how to face his opponent by presenting the side of his body so that it was a smaller target, and a few thrusts and blocks that he'd be using when Combeferre felt his phone vibrate. He took it out to see a text from Valjean

**Valjean:** _How's it going? Are Grantaire and Enjolras okay? They seemed pretty near killing each other this morning from what I saw and heard._

Combeferre smiled softly. Secondary dad indeed.

**Combeferre: **_Everything's okay, I got those two to sort it out and they're fine now._

_PS the saber duel is coming along well. I wasn't even needed for that. Of course, you knew that already when you sent me over to reconcile these two._

Valjean texted back a couple minutes later.

**Valjean:** _Good news on the duel._ _I hope you don't mind that I had you take care of them._

**Combeferre:** _I would have done so anyway, it's just that this way I didn't get in trouble. Working with people who are at odds with one another is bad to start with, but with Enjolras and Grantaire it's the pits. Who knows how long it would have taken for one of them to swallow their pride and truly apologize on their own? Probably wouldn't be until November._

Combeferre received a pleasant surprise when Valjean texted back right away.

**Valjean: **_Well, thank you. Btw, we just got on water break now so now is a good time to come back._

"Hey Grantaire, do you think we can leave now? The band's on water break."

"Alright." Grantaire handed the saber back to Éponine and followed Combeferre back to the marching field where Joly immediately ran up to Grantaire and let out a few incoherent phrases while trying to catch his breath. "What? You caught something? Forgot your inhaler? What?"

"You-" Joly huffed and pointed at Grantaire's arms. "YOU HAVE SUNBRUN! If you were out of sunscreen why didn't you tell me? I have plenty to share. Do you need aloe? You definitely need aloe, come on I'm taking you into the gym so you can get some aloe sunscreen there two in one perfect let's go." Grantaire gave Combeferre an apologetic look as he was dragged away by Joly. "Seriously Grantaire, why didn't you tell me you were out?"

"I'm not, I used some this morning!" Joly and Grantaire ran up the stairs in the gym building to their makeshift dormitory where Joly started digging around in his backpack for his aloe sunscreen.

"Really? Can I see it?" Grantaire nodded and fished it out from his bag.

"Hey Joly."

"What?"

"Never go shopping while drunk," said Grantaire, holding up a can of bug spray.

"Only you." Joly rubbed the cream from his own bottle of sunscreen onto Grantaire's forearms and calves. "May I ask you a weird question?"

"Sure."

"How do you woo girls without writing them poetry?"

"Oh man." Grantaire laughed and said, "I am the worst person to ask for romantic advice; I've gotten into people's beds but not their hearts. The only person I'm in love with is Enjolras and you can see how that's been going."

"But I mean, how would I attract someone or be romantic? I don't know how. I've never even kissed someone before."

Grantaire put a hand on Joly's shoulder. "This is about Musichetta, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I know I've only known for her less than a day but I really like her and I don't want to screw it up."

"Here's the thing, she likes you too. You guys still have to get to know each other and that's okay, but just be yourself around her. I may be a failure at romance but with any relationship with any person, honesty is the most important part. Look at me, I'm not going to date Enjolras in a million years, but at least I haven't pretended to be a charming, politically active, sober, little butterfly for him only to lure him in and then pull a 180 and show my true colors. Secrets are cruel to keep when you're close to someone and it'd be a betrayal to put on a show and be something you're not.

"My advice, specifically to you? Sometime soon, if it doesn't crop up before you plan to let the cat out of the bag, tell her about your hypochondria and what it's like and lay it all out for her so she knows what's going on and how to help you."

Joly's face contorted into a frown. He was the only person Grantaire knew whose face looked unnatural and uncomfortable expressing such a deep worry. No wonder he kept this under the rug so much, he hated to ruin his own good moods. "What if it scares her away or makes her think I'm making things up or imagining everything or trying to get attention? I'm NOT but people usually think-"

"Joly, I hate to say it but if she has that much of an issue with it and completely fails to understand or empathize with you then you weren't meant to be. Explain it as best as you can and all that it entails and she should be fine. It's something you need help with and something that has been there for awhile and probably isn't going to cure itself overnight. You have ways of coping, I know, but it's still something she needs to hear about, and it needs to be from you."

"Okay." Joly didn't look convinced and Grantaire guessed that he sounded like he was trying to get Joly to jump into the sewers.

"She already likes you, you're a great guy, you're talented, you're smart, you have an irresistible laugh, and you're usually a ray of sunshine. All that's left is for time to tell if you two will work out, and the only way to let to happen is to not shy away from aspects of yourself that you're not proud of. Heck, for all you know she's having these frets and worries about something she's ashamed of too, like a really intense love for peanut butter and onion sandwiches. I don't know. But my point is that it doesn't do you well to worry, and it'll be okay. Even if it isn't okay, I'll drag you over to my house and we'll watch the Disney channel with my little sister and eat too many Otterpops. Maybe I'll break out the glittery face paint and paint a caduceus on your cheek. Actually, I want to do that whether your love life flops or not."

Joly nodded and his usual smile returned. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"But really, how do you sleep with so many people? How do you randomly seduce all of them? I don't understand it."

"I take my pants off, show them my legs, it isn't that hard."

"No Grantaire, I mean in public. Like talking to them in public."

"Oh. Well, there was that one time where I did that-"

"We don't talk about it though," said Joly hurriedly.

"Yeah, let's just leave that be. Wait though, I think I know my trick. It's a secret, so I'll have to whisper it."

"Oh no." Joly leaned his head close to Grantaire's and waited for him to say it.

"I make fantastic waffles," he whispered.

"Your waffles make all the girls come to your bed?"

"And some boys. Don't forget those. Hey, my waffles are not something to be laughed at, they deserve some respect!" he said at Joly's giggles. "There were actually a few girls spreading delicious rumors about my cooking all over school and every single one of them is true. So they basically come over for the complimentary breakfast, sex on the side."

Joly was laughing wholeheartedly by now and when they were done (of course Grantaire had caught it too) he said, "You know, I don't think I'll ever meet another person like you, R."

"I sure hope not."

The two of them headed out for the last minute of break and walked right into a conversation between Jehan, Courfeyrac, and Musichetta that seemed to be unnerving the latter two.

"Well guys I mean, what's wrong with a bit of blood or gore? If so many people can talk about the beauty of someone's skin or eyes or hair or figure, how about the stuff beneath it, eh?" said Jehan.

"If someone's organs or veins are showing, that means there's a problem," replied Courfeyrac, who looked like he wasn't sure he wanted to be cuddling with Jehan while discussing this.

"Maybe, but what if they're already dead and you're talking about the inner beauty of someone's body then?"

"Then it's creepy," said Musichetta.

"Wonderful, Jehan," said Joly, taking a seat beside Musichetta. "Whenever I find myself doing cadaver labs in the future I'll think of you writing poetry about it."

"Hey, let our poet have his disturbing and macabre stuff." Grantaire sat down on the other side of Jehan and continued, "Be thankful I'm not painting any of it."

"Well, you could if you wanted to," said Jehan reasonably. "I know it can be a bit unnerving to think about, but as a writer and someone with a soul that longs to explore, it'd be extremely restricting to only write things everyone is comfortable with or common, everyday things. Why should I only stick to summer afternoons when there are so many winter nights to wander around in? Why should I not wear flowers or colors like purple? I couldn't bear to not show my appreciation of all the colors and designs we are blessed with seeing that I like simply because some people think I ought not to wear them or because they think certain types of beauty should only belong to certain genders."

"Well, to be honest, you sometimes show your appreciation for all colors all at once." Grantaire looked at Jehan's lavender pants, floral printed vest, and pastel green shirt.

"How did we get from cadaver labs to discussing Jehan's outfits?" asked Musichetta.

"We're an interesting group of people. Now would be the chance to run if you needed to," replied Joly.

Jehan grinned and got the same look Courfeyrac often got before telling a particularly bad pun. "Hey Grantaire."

"Your look worries me. What?"

He leaned over onto Grantaire's shoulder and said, "I'm a Romantic with a capital R." Jehan closed his eyes and began to laugh hysterically at his own pun, and one by one Grantaire, Courfeyrac, and Joly understood it and laughed enough to make everyone stare.


	6. Chapter 6

Hey everyone it's been awhile!

My llife is hectic and I'm writing and posting on my phone so chapters may take longer and be shorter.

A couple notes about this chapter: Jehan does a bit of rapping. I am aware that what he does is not quite rhythmically consistent and at one point it goes from AA BB to a verse of ABAB but bear with me it works if you can read it with variations expected.

Secondly, I'm bringing Marius's dad into this. He's still alive and a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. Most people associate it with America, there were some French forces there for awhile so it works if you're setting this in the US or France. It's also a war many people are against, at least here in the US, so Marius's grandfather's attitude, while more potent and spiteful than anyone I've met, is possible.

Also, I've started another multi chapter Les Mis fic called Daughter of Apollo and its darker than this but some of you may like it. It will only be two chapters and the second chapter is under construction and will probably be the next thing I post.

- PAGE BREAK -

The four boys were still laughing when Combeferre called out, "Everybody back on the field, this time in your first dot. We're going to learn the first part of the show and continue drills later."

"Dot?" asked Musichetta.

"Yeah, your first spot," said Grantaire. "I bet we're close since we're both trumpets. I'll help you find it." He led her over to his spot and said, "Here's mine, and I know because I'm in the front half of the field, two steps to the left of the forty yard line, and eight steps from the border of the front of the field. Lets read yours now, ah! Only three steps away from me."

Combeferre, Holly, Valjean, Javert, and the sophomore drum major wandered around and helped people find their spots and read their dot charts. Enjolras tried to join in but got told to go back to his own spot.

Learning the show was tedious work, even if they were only going through a third of it that morning. They would make sure they knew their current spot and how they got there and then know their next spot and how they had to get there and every time they added on one or two more sets of movement go back to the beginning and run it through and pray they for not only their spot but their marching technique right.

The sun was high in the sky even though it was a few hours from noon. Grey clouds gathered in the distance and suggested rain, but with the almost nonexistent wind it'd be awhile before they made it over. The heat and light humidity were making many people impatient, irritable, unfocused and frustrated.

"Move it Grantaire, you're in my spot." Bahorel stood next to Grantaire and tried to push him gently away so he wouldn't get in trouble.

"This is my spot, the trumpets were moving back here and I'm in the lead and you're in my way."

"So much in the lead you're seventeen steps away from Musichetta?"

"Yes smartass, I didn't write the show!"

"You're in my spot!"

"What's going on here?" Combeferre came over with his binder full of everyone's dots and frowned. "What're you doing over here Grantaire?"

"Going to my fucking spot, what else?"

The group heard the far off shout of "Language!"

"This isn't Grantaire's spot it's mine, I swear it."

Combeferre looked down at his book and held his glasses slightly up from his nose, "Hold on, lemme find your stuff, how Valjean reads his tiny print I'll never know."

"When you find it, you should see that my dot in the eighth set clearly states that Bahorel is full of shit."

"R, we're on the sixth set."

Grantaire closed his eyes and groaned, "Are you kidding me?"

"I'm right!" Bahorel gave Grantaire a strong spirited shove and stood in his spot.

Combeferre checked his watch and said, "Don't worry, we're taking a water break in ten minutes. The guard has been doing a lot of running so they're really exhausted."

"So am I." Grantaire walked to where he was supposed to be and Musichetta smiled at him.

"We missed you. I thought you went awfully fast, going 36 steps in 14 counts when no one else was running."

"Yeah, I nearly ran Marius and Bahorel over."

Javert marched up to Grantaire so naturally he seemed to be gliding. "What was that?"

"I went to the wrong dot. Hence the running and swearing." Grantaire wondered if Javert wanted an apology and added, "Sorry."

Javert stared at him before gliding away and talking to Valjean.

"What?" asked Musichetta.

"No idea," said Grantaire. "Javert's been acting weird to me. He doesn't keep his typical quota of how many times he yells at me for something. Maybe he isn't feeling well."

"I'm not sure I want to deal with him well if this is him sick."

"I agree, he's a harsh pain in the ass sometimes, but you know what? He's just as hard on himself as he is on us and he's probably more dedicated than anyone out here actually marching. He isn't a hypocrite, so I can forgive him."

Musichetta shrugged as they went back to their first dot and ran everything through together and wound up not far off from where they were supposed to be. Javert's voice rang out from the front of the fifty yard line. "I don't have a megaphone but listen up!"

"He doesn't need one," muttered Grantaire.

"Check your work everyone. Are you in the right place? Did you halt on the correct foot? Yes you are supposed to all be in a halt unless you're a guard member!" Some people looked guiltily at their feet and corrected their position. "Are you in playing position? Is your instrument exactly where it should be in playing position, flutes and trumpets!? Is your posture perfect? I don't think it is! Is your marching as perfect as it can be? Heels down and toes up! When backwards marching your heels should not touch the ground! When you step off it should never be on the right foot unless your dot specifically calls for it for an irregular halt or turn! Why are we stepping off on the right when we shouldn't be?!"

Javert took a deep breath and calmed himself down but still spoke loudly. "You have a lot to work on and you need to focus on every single part of your body and exactly what you are doing with it. Take ten."

People set their instruments down and went off the field to drink water. Grantaire got Combeferre alone a c asked, "Do you think Javert's feeling okay?"

"Yes, why?"

"He seems to not like yelling at me much, I'm not complaining but I worry about him."

"Oh." Combeferre started laughing and said, "No he's quite well but Valjean threw him for a loop."

"How? And why is it funny?"

"You see, Valjean made you a section leader, but Javert is used to thinking of you as a goof off, but he automatically respects section leaders and such more than other students so he's confused."

"Haha, I wonder if Valjean did it on purpose just to mess with him. I can't think of why else I'd be section leader."

Combeferre put a hand on Grantaire's shoulder and looked him in the eyes. "Actually, Valjean thinks you're smart and talented and wishes you'd have more dedication to positive things in life and that you'd believe in yourself more. In a way, he wants to push you to your full potential and prove to you you're better than you think because he knows you're capable. He cares a lot about you. Anyone who knows you wishes you cared about you too."

Grantaire tried to talk but found himself unable to speak for once. Combeferre smiled at him and walked off to get a drink.

"Hey R, do you think it's going to rain?" Joly stood by him with two fingers at his own neck taking his pulse. "I think we're going to get a strong storm, possibly with some lightning with the look of those clouds. You have to be careful about how your body can react to atmosphere changes during storms, though. I can't tell if my heart rate goes up a little because lightning puts me on edge or if its caused by the pressure change." Joly continued talking about storms and provided the perfect background noise for Grantaire to stare off into space and process the surprise that others cared about him like Combeferre said they did, especially Valjean. Grantaire snapped out of his trance and tuned into Joly's rambling.

"-and it's truly fascinating how they all form, thank goodness it isn't winter or we might have hail or thunder snow-"

"Are you okay?"

Joly looked down and asked, "Are you really sure Musichetta won't laugh? It sounds so stupid when you try to tell someone. Remember what those kids in middle school did? What if she does that oh God I'm never living that mess down-"

"Oh Joly." Grantaire hugged him and said, "I'm sure she won't. She may not understand but she isn't someone who would laugh at someone's anxiety and harass them about it. And since it is an anxiety issue it's normal for you to feel like this about it. It's not your fault even if some people try to make it feel like it is, and it isn't something you should feel guilty about either, okay? It'll be better once you get telling her over with."

Joly nodded and pulled Grantaire over with him to Bossuet and Musichetta. "Musichetta, I have something I need to tell you about and it's really embarrassing."

Musichetta downed half of her water bottle and said, "Okay, go for it. I don't bite."

"Um, okay." Joly sat down and pulled Grantaire with him. "I've never explained this before, people just sort of notice and then ask me but I think you need to know.

"So, have you ever felt like you were sick when you weren't? Like, you felt certain you had a fever but when you checked the thermometer it read 98.6 even though you were sure you were 102 or something?"

"Once or twice yeah, when I was getting over being sick but I still felt bad."

"Okay, um, and you take it and you don't want to be sick but you don't believe that the thermometer is right? You just have a hunch or feeling and maybe a few symptoms of a fever and you're absolutely convinced you have it, so much that you out in fresh batteries and take your temperature again or use a different thermometer just to really make sure and double or even triple check to make sure you're wrong and that you're not as sick as you think. Ever been like that?"

"No, can't say I have."

"Can you imagine it?"

Musichetta raised her eyebrows. "Yes."

Joly looked increasingly uncomfortable as he continued and started to talk faster. "Imagine that sort of feeling and hunch of being sick when it feels like you are and the fear that you're right even though you desperately hope to be wrong not just with fevers but any other sickness and injury imaginable. I fear being ill but I spend a lot of time thinking I have something really wrong with me besides asthma and regular tiredness from school and band and even though I KNOW it's improbable and that it could be my anxiety acting up I can't ever tell if what I feel is fake or not nearly as bad as I think. Like yesterday I noticed my foot fell asleep a couple times and I felt I was having circulation issues and maybe had a clot when it was really just me absentmindedly hooking my foot around the leg of a band chair and then feeling it fall asleep. Or last night one of my worries was that something was wrong with my spleen because my left shoulder was hurting and the nerves in there can be irritated and in pain if I had a rupture. It went away this morning so looking back I can see it was likely that I was laying down in an awkward position. I've also mistaken angina many times for mini heart attacks.

"Basically I'm the boy who cries wolf, but unlike the boy who was lying about wolves, I think they're there when they aren't and my phantom wolves make me worry and make me look like I'm just trying to draw attention to myself and then I feel guilty and I worry about worrying even though I think I have a right to be upset and worry even if its bad for me because I can't stop." Joly finished and panted from his longwinded explanation.

"So you're a hypochondriac." Musichetta held his hand and asked, "What can I do to help you about it? It's something that has you really worried and I want to help but I don't know how."

"Um, listen to me when I need you to, if you can you could maybe convince me I'm wrong but that may not happen because it has to be something absolute to make me know I don't have what I think. Like my parents when we got Noodles."

"WHAT?"

Grantaire laughed and said, "You have to tell her about Noodles, everyone knows."

"What?" she asked again.

Bossuet ignored Musichetta and talked directly to Joly, "You didn't mention the shoulder thing last night."

"I know, I didn't have the guts to do it because its one of the weirder things."

"Tell me next time, I could have reminded you that a rupture would have come from an impact and that you hadn't had one recently and that you were okay."

"Sorry."

Bossuet draped an arm around Joly. "Want to tell Musichetta about Noodles?"

"Sure. A few years ago I got an allergy test done and I was having trouble believing I was only allergic to certain kinds of plant pollen but mo foods or animals. My parents told me they knew a way to prove the test was right that would calm my fears."

"What did they do?"

"They asked me if I wanted a puppy or a kitten."

"Awww, so Noodles is your pet?"

Joly smiled and at last looked at ease. "Yeah, she's my cat. For some reason when I was twelve I thought Noodles was a good name for a yellow cat and it stuck."

"We all think its funny, but he really should have named her Tinkerbell," said Grantaire. "She's so jealous of him that she tries to keep him in bed every morning by flopping over on top of him, and when he was over at Cosette's house with her and pet Cosette's dog she got mad, snarled at the dog and got chased up a tree. You'll probably have to compete with and impress Joly's cat to get her to let you date him and share the bed." Grantaire drank a large gulp of water and continued with almost no break, "She doesn't even like me sleeping in his room by the bed because it interferes with his scent or something. It's really cute but creepy."

Enjolras walked into the conversation and laid down by Joly. "My shoulder blades ache, could you give them a quick massage so I can march better? I don't mean to be rude but I'm having a lot of trouble."

"Of course!" Joly brightened even more and got to work rubbing Enjolras's back. "Goodness, you have enough tension for three people." Enjolras twitched whenever Joly went to a different part of his back and shoulders and accidentally stiffened while Joly was trying to massage him.

"I'm sorry Joly, I'm not touched often so I'm very sensitive." Grantaire closed his eyes and flushed red but wisely decided not to say anything. "By the way, we're on a bit of an extended break because the adults are trying to figure out what to do about the rain. It's supposed to rain all afternoon and evening."

Grantaire watched Enjolras relax and got a powerful urge to make small talk and never disagree with him again. Oh how nice it would be to sit down with Enjolras and drink coffee with a pastry or two and discuss clouds. Perhaps Joly could teach him a few things about them so he'd have a lot to tell him. Enjolras would never rebuke or scorn him if they didn't talk about anything that mattered. He may even like Grantaire if he got to know him outside of all his unpleasant faults. Maybe the pastries were made by Grantaire that morning, specially for Enjolras because they had something he really liked in them like raspberry filling or cream.

"Grantaire?" Enjolras was looking at him with narrowed but drowsy eyes. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?"

"You were thinking."

"Is it really that surprising that I think?"

"Come on, what were you thinking about?"

No way would Grantaire tell Enjolras the sweet and innocent daydream he had been having so he decided to make the first flirt of the day a good one. "I want to learn your fingerings and play your G note, if you know what I mean."

Joly accidentally pressed down so hard Enjolras's back popped loudly several times as everyone in the group, Enjolras and Grantaire included, started laughing. Grantaire could see Enjolras was uncomfortable but really was amused. He faced the group and spluttered out, "OH MY GOD GRANTAIRE! A year ago I wouldn't have known what you were talking about, now there isn't an innuendo I can miss. Thank you though, my back feels perfect now after those pops."

"See what a great boyfriend Joly will be?" said Grantaire to Musichetta. "Even when it looks like he's going to screw up a massage it all works out. He's so good at it we ought to pay him."

Joly blushed and replied, "If I make you feel better you've paid me already."

Grantaire smiled and leaned over to Musichetta, "He's a doctor and masseur in one, snap that boy up while you have the chance."

"Attention everyone!" Javert stood in front of the scattered group and said, "Valjean and I have decided to-" he closed his eyes as though the end of the sentence was painful to say and continued with a sigh, "Valjean and I have decided to give you the evening off for a study hall of sorts due to the oncoming rainstorm. We will have marching practice until lunch and then music practice for an hour with the remainder of the night free for anything you need to do. Anything PRODUCTIVE. Go over your parts, memorize, improve. But for now, get out your dots."

Javert seemed to think that since everyone would have the evening off he needed to be even harsher and perfecting than usual. The band got to a point where they needed to jazz run but had barely done so except for that morning during drill. Enough people told him they didn't know how to jazz run that he stopped going off of the dot sheets and made everyone, including guard and battery, work on running.

"Do not swing your hips out! Run evenly and in time, this is marching band and not middle school gym class! WHY ARE WE ON THE WRONG FOOT? Everyone stop! Trumpets!"

"Oh shit, he does this every year," muttered Grantaire. "You're going to love this, Musichetta."

"Trumpets, switch with mellophones!" Bossuet handed Grantaire his mellophone with a sweet smile and took Grantaire's trumpet. "Hold the mellophone up to where your trumpet ought to be at playing position and stay there for five minutes."

The trumpet section groaned and mellos laughed as they held up the heavier instrument to fifteen degrees. At the same time, it started sprinkling.

"Woodwinds, instruments away!" called out Combeferre. "Bahorel stay put, you are not a woodwind!"

The woodwind players ran as fast as they could to the band room followed by Valjean so he could open the door for them. By the time they came back the trumpet players were finally allowed to give the mellophone players their instruments back.

"Now that our trumpets shouldn't have a problem holding their instrument up and we all know how to run, go to set ten." Everyone found their proper dot and stood where they were supposed to be in playing position, even the people who now didn't have instruments. They madeGrantaire tried his best to not laugh as the woodwind players marched and pantomimed having an instrument but lost it when Marius marched by him air saxophone-ing.

"GRANTAIRE!"

Grantaire let out a loud blat from his trumpet and roared the same way drunk people do at concerts. Other brass players and Courfeyrac joined in and Javert shouted above them all.

"I see nothing good will come out of these next few minutes, put your instruments away and go to lunch!"

Courfeyrac and Jehan held hands as they walked to the lunch area. Courfeyrac beamed happily and squeezed Jehan's hand. "A few more minutes will mark a very important time."

"What's that?"

"Our 24 hour anniversary!" Courfeyrac pecked Jehan's cheek and looked at him with softness. "I love to kiss you and hold your hand, but it can be hard to do so, knowing I'm blocking your outlets of expression for even a few seconds."

Jehan blushed and properly kissed Courfeyrac's mouth. "You are the inspiration of my soul and muse of my heart, I will never mind being loved by you and not be actively composing poetry. Writing ideas often hit me at odd times of night or snatches of the day anyways. All of my love poems are about you."

Courfeyrac would have been content if he hadn't remembered some of them. "Wait a minute, aren't some if those poems about girls?"

"Oh, yeah, I made sure to write about someone of the opposite gender too so that it wouldn't appear I liked one specific person. So I just imagined you as a girl."

"You called me 'fair maiden of spring', 'mousy seductress', and your 'hazel eyed mistress with lips always wet and legs always open for you'!"

The two boys heard a deep chuckle and whirled around to see Valjean walking directly behind them. Javert walked in step beside Valjean and wasn't laughing but looked either amused or uncomfortable. "Don't worry boys, I've heard much worse."

Courfeyrac poured his water bottle over his head and grinned as the other students laughed. Humor was humor after all, even if at his own expense.

"I wrote a poem but it wasn't about love," said Jehan, eager to change the subject. "I started it the day before yesterday and I think it's done. Can I show it to you during lunch?"

"Of course!"

"It has swears."

"The more the merrier."

"It's a rap."

"WHAT?"

Jehan frowned. "Why is it that no one thinks I can rap?"

"No, I think you can but it doesn't seem, you know, you." Courfeyrac got them soup and salad and sat down under a tree and mostly out of the rain. They were joined by almost all of the rest of the group except for Combeferre and stood up and cleared his throat.

"May I test out a poem on you all?"

"Is it about Courfeyrac the mouse prince?" asked Grantaire.

Jehan blushed as everyone had a small reprise of laughter. "No it isn't. I wrote it after I got harassed by some asshole on the city bus. Long story short, I'd reached my limit and challenged this guy to a rap battle which he accepted saying 'only real men can rap', sorry ladies. Basically we had a rap off and let the audience decide who was the best and I won by a landslide. I was still thinking about it when I got home and wrote this.

"I look like I can't take a hit

But I ain't gonna take your shit

Got my hair in a braid

Been teased since second grade

But I can kick your ass

And do it with class

Muthafucka I ain't gonna punch you

You're not worth my time

You won't taste my shoe

You're gonna die in rhyme

You want a rap battle?

You'll go down with your stupid prattle

A sparring of wits?

I'll find whatever fits

I look and smell like a girl

And I'll proudly be a pearl

I'm a proud flower child

Nothin' about me's mild

I'm girly and a son

You're the cunt even if you don't got one

I can sing and play the flute

Oh baby I still get some loot."

Jehan added a pelvic thrust in when he said loot and smirked at the whistles and Courfeyrac's bright blush.

"So what I'm trying to say

Is get the fuck outta my way

I won't lie down on the floor

I'm not gonna be a window but a door

Try to take me down again

You don't wanna know what happens then"

All that had been listening broke into applause and whoops as Jehan bowed and looked closer to his usually delicate self. Jehan hadn't realized how loud he had been and saw Javert sitting with his face in his hands next to an amused Valjean some ways away.

"You were great!" Courfeyrac pulled Jehan down into his lap and Eskimo kissed him. "Happy 24 hours!"

"Awww, Marius and I are nearly at a year ourselves, how cute!" Cosette was leaning against Marius and gave him a soft smile when he held her closer. Eponine gloomily looked down at her untouched food and offered it to Bahorel and Grantaire who immediately accepted it.

"That was really inspiring," said Joly. "Could you help me with a poem?"

"Yeah sure."

Joly handed Jehan a piece of paper that said:

Musichetta

Your name has music in it

That's beautiful

"Oh hon." Jehan smiled and said, "I'll help you."

Musichetta gave Joly a knowing look and he blushed. "I just need some help organizing my thoughts, okay?"

"Hey Marius." Eponine looked at him and tried to smile. "My dad was wondering if your dad wanted to come over for tea or something."

"Oh, I'm sure he'd love that!" Marius's expression clouded. "That is, if he's up to it. He seems to be growing worse and worse. The nightmares are happening more often and his focus is so bad he can't hold down a job. I know what happened over in Afghanistan may never leave him but I still think that he wouldn't be so badly off if my grandfather stopped harassing him and saying so many horrible things to him. It isn't his fault he went into a war my grandfather doesn't approve of."

"Maybe having a visit with my dad will help. You can come too."

Marius smiled warmly at her and didn't notice Cosette crossing her arms and glaring at Eponine. "Thank you. I don't know why but he seems to do better when I'm around him. It's like I ground him and his mind heals a bit. Maybe because when he left I was really little and I'm something consistent in his life because I'm still here."

"Anyways, my dad was thinking Wednesday because that's the halfday in the band camp week."

"I'll text him and see if it'll work."

Combeferre joined the group and sat next to Joly. "Hey everyone, the plan is to work on music this afternoon in the band room and try to get some of it memorized. Guard will be in the main gym working on flag work. Pit practice starts tomorrow, but if you want to come and get some music to look over you can come with me to the music library after lunch, Feuilly."

"You know what we should all do after we work out talent show stuff?" said Bahorel. "Get a board game started. We have quite a few days left."

"I brought Monopoly," said Feuilly.

Grantaire stared. "HOW DID YOU-? Never mind. I give up. I brought Mille Bourne and we should totally combine them, like make the Mille Bourne game go a lot longer and have the distances we get on the road trip correspond to the monopoly board and we stay at the hotels we land on."

"Hope you guys have fun," said Bossuet. "I never play Mille Bourne; it's too much like my actual life."

"Kiddos!" Valjean stood in the middle of the area students were sitting around and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Everybody to the band room! Lets make our music actually musical!"

Colette and Enjolras rounded up the guard members and the band headed indoors.

"We've got most of the basics down," said Valjean. "But we need to start making it truly sound like music and get out of the black dots on a page. Open to Buckbeak's Flight and start after the drum solo." The class played daily well without many missed noted but Valjean cut them off quickly.

"Okay, we've all seen Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, right? Good. When you play this you really need to bring out the swells of music. Imagine a flying hippogriff and Harry being happy for once in his life. Look." He sang the main melody and emphasized the rise and falls of music by holding out his arms and moving them to the dynamics like wings. "See? I look like I'm flying. It's silly but whatever helps you to not play like you're dead."

"I think it would help my educational experience if Combeferre directed like that on the drum major platform during shows," said Grantaire.

"No." Combeferre tried to look cross as most of the room chuckled.

"Haha, knock it off." Valjean held his baton up and waited until everyone was quiet. "Now lets try this again and mark time like you're supposed to."

Valjean had them play for nearly three hours before letting them go for the night. "Work on memorizing music tonight, we're going to expect you to be able to play on the field tomorrow for at least the first movement. Also, if any of you know that you have classes like history or language that you know you need a book for the librarian is on campus today so you can go over and bug her and start looking at your books early. See you at dinner."

Everyone left the room, many people carrying music stands and running once outside to get to the gym and out of what was now a downpour. Guard members were already lounging around in the makeshift dormitories of the gyms. People chatted about the talent show and looked over their music. Jehan sat outside underneath the gyms overhang by the door to listen to the rain and Joly , Bossuet, Bahorel, and Courfeyrac settled nearby with a deck of cards to keep Jehan company outside. Joly's prediction about thunder and lightening turned out to be right and they let out shouts when they saw flashes of lightening and heard thunder while Jehan smiled serenely at it.

Grantaire got upstairs first and found Eponine sitting by Marius's sleeping bag. She jumped when she saw Grantaire and talked hurriedly, "Sorry, we got done early today since it looks like someone sprained an ankle so I thought you guys might not be back until dinner. Um, can I vent to you like in a hallway?"

"Sure."

Eponine led him out to a lockeroom hallway and sank against a wall. "It's really hopeless, isn't it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about but it probably is hopeless, whatever it is."

"Marius."

"Oh, definitely then." Grantaire sat beside her and held her hand. "Unrequited love blows."

She nodded and said, "I just don't get it I mean, I hang out with basically all guys. My life is a fucking sausage fest, and the ONE girl I talk to aside from my punk ass little sister is dating the man I love! WHY? God!"

"I know it's hard to accept it, but Marius will always love Cosette. You're going to have to find someone new to love. You might not for a long time, but you should try."

"It's getting close to their anniversary. I think you're right." Eponine paused and asked, "Do you hear someone crying?"

Grantaire could hear rumbles of thunder and someone down the hall crying like they were making a mess of snot and tears. "It sounds like its from the boys bathroom. I'll check it out."

Eponine walked away and Grantaire softly tiptoed down the hall and opened the door and looked inside to see who was crying. His heart skipped a beat and he hated loving the passionate radiance Enjolras could project even when upset and sobbing hard enough he had to be bearing more than one mans share worth of grief. Grantaire guessed it may have something to do with the history book lying a decent throw away from where Enjolras was sitting. His face was red and contorted with a mix of sorrow and wrath and Grantaire watched it go to the fullest human limit of expression when he made Enjolras laugh as he sang,

"Chiquitita tell me, what's wrong?"


	7. Chapter 7

I'm not feeling my best right now as I'm tired from yet another move, this time my own home, and I sprained my ankle (I have no depth perception and unpainted curbs are not my friends). And since I injured myself badly enough to be home for a few days I got the time to write so here y'all go.

This is kinda rambly but I hope it turned out okay.

Thank you very much to all who reviewed and to the guest who said "yoooooo Jehan's got swag!" I'm still laughing oh man.

-page break-

Grantaire knelt by Enjolras and held his arms out, offering him a hug. Enjolras accepted so desperately he knocked Grantaire into a sitting position and curled up on top of him and cried into his shirt.

"Can you tell me what's wrong?"

"EVERYTHING!" howled Enjolras. "Look at the world, this mess, I'm supposed to take it quietly, oh how can I sit in class and fill in a worksheet about such horrors, oh I'm worthless what can I do I can't do anything oh God I feel sick." He shook harder and Grantaire stroked his hair in an effort to comfort him.

"Did you really just say you're worthless? Do you think you don't matter in the scheme of things?"

"YES! And you know why! All around the world people are being oppressed, are sick, are abused, homeless, taken advantage of, are tortured, raped, killed, habitats are being destroyed, pollution is rising, people are being bombed, rights are being fought for and hardly any if any ground is gained, look at everything wrong! How am I supposed to fix it? I can't! There are problems out there I may never even be aware of!

"I have to do something, I have to be on the right side, I will never give up but even if I never sleep I can never do everything someone will always be hurt on my watch and I can't help it!" Enjolras sobbed harder and Grantaire held him closer.

"Enjolras, will you listen to what I have to say?" He nodded into Grantaire's shoulder and Grantaire continued talking.

"First off, don't forget that I'm the king if negativity, like, if there's something bad going on I know about it. I see it all over. I know what you're talking about and I am not optimistic in any sense of the word, so hear me out when I say this.

"You are absolutely right. You can't do everything by yourself. You will never fix everything. You are not Jesus. You will never look out at the world and be completely satisfied. But here's why I love you so much." Grantaire paused and let Enjolras blow his nose. "You have a sensitive heart and a rigid conscience. You feel bad about things and then you go and DO something about it. You're soft enough to have empathy and sympathy but strong enough to go out and help. If you think I'm making a big deal out of nothing you're mistaking everyone for being more than they are. Take me, for example.

"A few days ago I was walking around downtown and I went directly past a man who I'm sure was homeless. He had ragged and torn clothes, bit of a smell, unkempt hair, no shoes, dirt all over, grey skin, downcast eyes, you get the picture. What did I do? Went directly by with nothing but a glance and a twinge in my conscience. Oh yes Enjolras, I knew it was wrong to go past someone in need but I did it anyways.

"Some people may justify what I did. Oh, he was likely a drug addict. Oh, he's just too lazy to work. Because of course all people living in poverty are lazy and everyone who falls to the bottom are supporting a drug habit. I could even say I didn't have the time to stop, and apparently neither did anyone else on the library sidewalk.

"You would have stopped. Maybe you'd get to know him or maybe you'd give him something right off, give someone a chance without prying into their life. People like you are fairly rare nowadays.

"But back to my point about how you can't do everything by yourself. You won't be by yourself. There are thousands upon thousands of people out there who say they are generous and good hearted, yet they sit on their compassion and do nothing without. Perhaps they are afraid or unsure or don't even know where to look. There's plenty of people who need a kick in the pants to go do something good with their lives and you can do it. You can rally people to you, make people aware of what's going on, recruit volunteers for food banks or volunteers to plant trees or go to protests or whatever it is. You can promote positive organizations and charities, but if you're unsatisfied with those you'll go and found your own. I know you.

"The mess will never be totally fixed. The general rule of people is that if someone sees a way to one up someone else and gain power over them, they'll do it. Every day of the year is soaked in blood and darkness, every holiday the anniversary of someone's tragedy.

"I have little faith in mankind. We see the same world and you somehow have the energy to try and fix it. I don't think I could overcome my doubts and disgust with everything to do so. I know a lost cause when I see it. I don't believe in the world, but I believe in you."

Enjolras had stopped crying halfway through Grantaire's speech and was giving him an odd look. "You really think that way?"

"Yes."

"And, you think me better than you?"

Grantaire snorted and said, "You are, clearly. Don't argue with me on this one, you'll lose."

Enjolras stayed on Grantaire and snuggled up to him. His nose gently nuzzled Grantaire's neck and Grantaire smiled. "You really were a mess, huh?"

"Yeah. You've helped me a lot. Thank you."

"I'm pretty sure you knew everything I said."

"Doesn't change the fact that it was good for me to hear. You underestimate yourself. Um." Enjolras seemed to remember that Grantaire may feel awkward and stood up on his own. "Do you want to go out? Outside you know, to people?"

Grantaire and Enjolras walked out of the bathroom and into the gym to find the rest of Les Amis plus Cosette, Musichetta, and Eponine sitting around a monopoly board. Jehan wasn't playing but was writing in a notebook. Musichetta and Bossuet, who was playing as the banker, were on either side of Joly and close enough that their thighs pressed against his. Cosette and Marius were sharing a game piece while Combeferre and Feuilly were reading Feuilly's Polish book.

"Valjean made us come in because of the lightening. Said we might get struck if we were outside," said Jehan without looking up from his notebook.

"You should play with us!" Courfeyrac patted the ground beside him and held out a paper clip and a piece of spare change. "We still have enough pieces."

"I'll pass. I should study history or something." Enjolras tried to move away but Marius and Joly got up at the same time.

"Um, I was gonna look at music." Marius offered Enjolras his spot and moved away to put his saxophone together.

Joly grinned and said, "I'll look at music too, as funny as it is to have Courfeyrac accuse me of cheating every turn because I'm next to Bossuet I really need to practice."

"But you DO cheat! You just don't do it on purpose because Bossuet gives money to you without being asked!"

Grantaire frowned and crossed his arms. "No. No I will not have it! Nobody but Combeferre and Feuilly are allowed to do anything productive before dinner, you'll put me off having any fun."

Enjolras went to sit away from the group with his school book but Grantaire playfully pulled him over. "Come on Enjolras, when's the last time you played monopoly?"

"In fifth grade when Eponine and Montparnasse broke up over a game and the shouting was so bad we all had to leave my house."

"WE NEVER BRING THAT UP!" Eponine flushed red and buried her face in her hands. "He was cheating even more than Gavroche and I and for some reason the squabble turned into a full blown fight over the future of the relationship and how he was supposedly going to get me thrown in prison someday and oh god it was the worst day in my elementary school life."

"My worst day was worse." Grantaire sat down and Enjolras had no choice but to follow since Grantaire was still holding onto him. "The day I flunked second grade and got held back was the day my mom gave up all hope in me and when my dad stopped loving me. I know for a fact it was that exact day they knew I was a dud and hope for the family was lost because they had my sister ten months later."

Musichetta laughed but looked uncomfortable. "I'm sorry your family feels that way."

Grantaire waved his hand and said, "It sorta blows, but my sister, Sylvie, thinks I'm the best big brother ever. I watch all the shows she likes with her, teach her how to draw, help her with her piano music, and I'll even sit through twenty games of go fish if she wants me to. I'm a lot more patient than our parents." He stared off into space and smiled affectionately. "I'm kind of glad my parents who don't like kids much had her so I have a friend at home. Maybe she has gotten me in trouble for letting on that I taught her poker but its all worth it. Don't look at me like that Enjolras we were betting cough drops while home sick. And why does Joly sound so bad?"

A sad, airy, quiet, wavering note from a flute hung in the air followed by quick panting. "How on earth do you play this thing?" asked Marius.

"It's like blowing over a glass bottle, you have to be exact and careful with your air." Grantaire turned around to see Marius with Joly's flute and Joly with Marius's saxophone. "You have to admit this is a good waste of time."

"And one of my reeds." Marius held up the flute and blew into it again and got the same weak sound. "Our instruments supposedly have the same fingerings but this is really confusing."

Joly played a loud note on the saxophone and overblew so badly he made himself jump. "That's loud!"

"No it isn't."

"Shut up Grantaire yes it is."

"Here I'll help Marius." Jehan took Joly's flute and showed Marius how to properly play it. "I kind of miss playing flute."

With Marius and Joly working out each others instruments and sounding terrible and everyone else wanting Enjolras to play with them, he sighed and grabbed the paper clip as a game piece. At the same time he joined Courfeyrac's Mille Bourne team and they got nowhere.

"That means you get to move one in the monopoly board."

Enjolras sighed even more deeply and said, "I am now the proud owner of the worlds worst hotel."

"Nope, I beat you to it," said Eponine. "Boulevard de Belleville, you owe me 200."

"This game is going to be awful."

"I'm not dating anyone playing this time so we should be okay."

As far as monopoly went it was as good a game as could be with badly played flute and saxophone noises in the background, which meant everyone was thankful when Javert walked into the gym and yelled at them to practice their music or marching.

"Excellent timing," said Cosette, who had just landed on Bahorel's Rue de la Paix.

"Damn it! Let's leave the game out." Bahorel took a picture of the board and people's piles of money.

"Welllll." Cosette smirked and said, "He said to practice music, not specifically what music."

Grantaire held Enjolras from behind and asked, "Do you want to practice our song?"

"I don't think I need to." Enjolras detangled himself from Grantaire and stood by himself and air fenced with and imaginary opponent.

"You look ridiculous."

"If you won't let me study my book then I'll work on guard stuff.

"I could help you."

"I'm good."

"What the hell Enjolras? I've been feeling like I'm a bit closer to you today but you still can't stand me at all?"

"It's not that, I just need time alone."

"Whatever." Grantaire laid down on his stomach and stared at his music without absorbing anything. He glanced up at Enjolras every once and awhile and turned away whenever he accidentally caught Enjolras's eye.

"I'm gonna get a shower." Jehan closed his notebook and carefully undid his braid, letting his hair down in waves.

"Oooh, can I brush it for you?" Courfeyrac sat behind Jehan and kissed his cheek. He ran his fingers through the waves and played with it a bit as Jehan pulled his cosmetic things out of his backpack.

Jehan looked at his brush and frowned. "Will you promise to be gentle? My scalp is really sensitive and if you yank my hair I'll probably start crying. I braid it so it doesn't tangle but there might be some in there."

"I'd never hurt you, I'll be careful." Jehan handed over the brush shakily and braced himself. Courfeyrac lovingly stroked Jehan's hair and started at the bottom with small sections and worked up. Jehan really didn't have any tangles but Courfeyrac took his time and enjoyed brushing the same sections multiple times and letting the soft brush bristles scratch slightly against his head.

"Does that feel okay? I should think it does but maybe I'm doing a bad job. You okay?"

"Hmmmmmmm."

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Hey Musichetta?" Joly put his flute away and turned towards her. "Do you want to go and walk around outside or something?"

"Yeah, I just gotta go to the other gym for a sec." She left quickly with a blush and Joly felt a spike of nervousness.

Joly frowned. "Do you think she doesn't want to go and is just saying yes to be nice? She seems upset."

Courfeyrac leaned over and said, "She could have made plenty of excuses not to go, she wants to go with you for sure, but I guess she has to get something personal since she looked awkward leaving."

Jehan tipped his head back so his hair was in Courfeyrac's face. "Shut up and keep brushing."

"You forgot the magic word."

"I'll let you wash it later and comb it."

Courfeyrac blushed and kept up with the stokes of the brush and the caresses. "You've found a weakness of mine within a week of our relationship. It isn't fair."

"I plan to exploit your weakness quite often."

"I have many others, but none of then are as innocent as playing with your hair."

"I look forward to finding them out. We may find other uses for that hairbrush."

Enjolras tripped over himself and fell into Combeferre's sleeping bag. "I can't go a single day without hearing someone discussing kinks around here, can I?"

Grantaire chuckled. "Honey, you're in high school."

"I'm gonna go." Joly pulled a small object from his bag and stuffed it in his pocket. "See ya." He looked at Courfeyrac and Jehan, both casually touching and laughing and hoped he could ever come close to that.

Joly jogged into the girls gym and found Musichetta with her backpack open and the contents spilled all over the floor. She was blushing even more and Joly was sure of his guess.

"Do you need a sanitary napkin?" He held out a pad and blushed as Musichetta stared.

"A sanitary napkin." All at once she took it, stood up, and kissed him firmly on the mouth.

"I'll be right back." She smiled at him as Joly swayed slightly on his feet and gazed out at where Musichetta had been. He was still in the same spot when she got back and hugged him. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." He hugged her back and giddiness flooded into him. "Are we dating now?"

"I hope so." She laughed and repeated, "A sanitary napkin. You're so adorable. I've never heard someone even say 'sanitary napkin' out loud before. And not only that but you carry them around with you?"

"Yeah, because that way I have one if a friend needs it, for female reasons or even as a last ditch first aid tool, which is why it's a napkin and not a tampon."

"You're adorable." Musichetta stepped back from him but held his hand. "Show me around the school?"

"Absolutely."

Joly and Musichetta walked hand& in hand down to the main gym and ran into Bossuet. "We're dating!" Joly excitedly squeezed Musichetta's hand and grinned at Bossuet.

"Oh, congrats. I'm happy for you." Bossuet turned away and said, "I'll let Grantaire know, it'll make his day."

"Okay!" Joly pulled Musichetta outside with him and laughed in the rain. He guided her to a building on the other side of the campus and they huddled together underneath the overhang.

"The lightning is gone, we're safe,"said Joly. "Just a little rain."

Musichetta pulled him close to her, one hand on the small of his back and the other wrapped around his shoulders. Her eyes burned into his intently and Joly's breathing deepened.

She pressed her nose gently again his. "I need lots of affection. If you're my boyfriend, you're going to have to pay attention to me and really make an effort to make me feel possessed. I don't mean that I want to feel like your belonging, but I don't want to feel single." Her express softened and she said, "I don't want to sound clingy, but I know me and my past, and I need my partner's love and affection. Like, I need to feel wanted. Do you understand?"

Joly's breathing slowed even more and his heartbeat went up as he looked at her. "You think I might be distant or unaffectionate? I was worried I might wind up being too clingy myself."

"Go ahead and try to be too clingy. You'll never achieve it with me."

Joly held her tighter and leaned his head in until his mouth was less than a centimeter away. "Kiss me again."

"I was hoping you'd initiate this one."

"I don't know how."

Musichetta softly pressed her own lips to his and smiled when he shivered. Joly opened his mouth to take in a breath of air and she slipped her tongue inside of his mouth. She deepened their kiss even more and Joly finally got the gist of what he was supposed to do and kissed her back. His eyes closed and soon hers did too. They lost themselves in the other, touching everything their hands could casually reach and after a bit even breathing in sync.

Musichetta parted from their kiss and caressed Joly's face. "You're smart, talented, adorable, and overall a ray of sunshine. Why do you like me?"

Joly shakily leaned against her and inhaled the scent of her hair. "Where do I start? You're confident, warm, hardworking, witty, and gorgeous." He wrapped his arms around her neck and caressed her as he did so. "Maybe you aren't looking for physics traits, but I have to tell you that your eyes are what drew me in. You have the eyes of a fortune teller, a mist of blues and grays in which the depth and beauty of your soul are glimpsed."

"I think I need to kiss you again." Musichetta kissed him deeply and slowly and slid her hand under his shirt to rub his back. They stayed there and snuggled together for what felt like minutes but was closer to an hour.

Meanwhile, Bossuet trudged up the stairs to the boys gym and found Grantaire drawing a sketch of Enjolras from across the gym. "Permission to join the 'Pining for a Boy You'll Never Ever Get to Have Club'?"

Grantaire raised his eyebrows. "Granted. If you tell me who it is."

Jehan overheard and came over with Courfeyrac. Bossuet scowled and said, "This is a closed meeting."

"Oh come on, you've had the biggest crush on Joly since forever, everyone knows that. Now I'm assuming he's dating Musichetta?"

"Yeah. And does everyone really know?"

"No," said Courfeyrac. "This is all very juicy news to me."

Bossuet sighed and buried his head in his hands. "I want him to be happy, and it looks like he and Musichetta are perfect for each other, but I wanted him to be happy with me. I wanted to be the one to wake up beside him, hold him, comfort him, spend the best times of his life with him, everything." Bossuet moved his knees up and rested his arms and forehead on them and started shaking. "It hurts so much when someone means everything to you but you're nothing to them."

"Honey." Bossuet started crying in earnest and Jehan wrapped an arm around him. "Bossuet, you're far from nothing to him. He loves you, but maybe not in a romantic way. Believe me, he still needs you. You're his oldest and first friend and he's always going to be close to you so long as you let him. I think it'll be a bit weird, but I have no doubt that he'll probably try to bring you along with Musichetta everywhere they go."

"Jehan's right." Grantaire held Bossuet from his other side and fluffed his hair. "And I can't believe I'm saying this but if it'll help you feel better we can go over music. Maybe that'd help, to do music at band camp. You're the third person today to have a breakdown in our friend group and some actual work may help. I know I'm rambling but you like never cry so it's so scary I actually want to follow orders and not be screwed tomorrow. Better be a mess now than in the first week of school with everyone else."

"Dinner!"

"Or not." Grantaire stood and offered Bossuet a hand up. "Coming with us?"

"I guess." Grantaire pulled Bossuet to his feet and Jehan let go to cuddle with Courfeyrac and somehow walk at the same time.

Dinner was soup and salad with breadsticks and the smell seemed to help Bossuet feel better. Marius and Cosette already had their food and had found a large, dry area and were saving spots. Combeferre, Feuilly, and Holly were with them and Feuilly and Combeferre were still looking over the Polish book. Everyone made it over but Joly and Musichetta who were still missing fifteen minutes later.

"I bet they're cuddling somewhere private and enjoying each others company," said Bossuet. He subconsciously did the same thing Eponine had done at lunch and gave his food away. "I can't eat."

Bahorel eyed it and pushed it back. "You haven't touched it. You have to eat or you'll be a wreck tomorrow."

"Clam chowder cannot heal my broken heart."

Bossuet was about to start crying again when Grantaire asked Holly and Combeferre, "Do you know what music we're going to be using in parades?"

"No idea."

Courfeyrac grinned and said, "What if its Nyan Cat?"

"NO!" shouted Combeferre.

"It'd be over awfully fast, imagine trying to march to that." Grantaire doubled over laughing as Eponine's face lit up.

"The guard could have rainbow flags and kitty ears!"

In unison, everyone turned to look at Enjolras.

"ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?" Grantaire laid flat on his back and hugged his chest as he choked on his shouts of mirth.

Joly and Musichetta walked into the group and sat down next to Bossuet. "Hello!" Joly smiled brightly at everyone and leaned against Musichetta. "What'd we miss?"

"The discussion of Enjolras with kitty ears and a rainbow flag." Jehan pulled out a smaller notebook than the one he had earlier and said, "This is all going in my band journal for this year."

"It's not the rainbow flag I mind, it's the kitty ears." Enjolras sighed as people kept chuckling and raised his voice over everyone else's, "I dread saying this, but does anyone want to come over Wednesday or do you all have plans?"

"I'll come over!" Feuilly beamed at Enjolras and leaned over to hug him. "Thanks for the invite."

"Oh, um, you're welcome, and you're welcome over anytime dude you don't have to ask."

"I know, but I need to make sure I'm welcome. It'd be impolite not to."

Grantaire sat up and exhaled. "Whew, I've gotten in my ab exercises for the day." He looked over at Holly and smiled. "Hello mademoiselle, won't Combeferre introduce us?"

"He doesn't need to. I'm Holly, as you very well know, and you're Grantaire. And by the way, I already have a boyfriend so your flirts will do you no good."

"Ah well, it was worth a go for such an intelligent and charming girl as yourself." Most of the group groaned as Holly chuckled at him. "But you haven't been in our group much, so we really should introduce ourselves."

"That's a good idea. And Musichetta can get to know you guys too!" Joly cleared his throat and asked, "May I go first?"

"Go for it Jolllly," said Grantaire.

"My name is Joly, and I want to be a doctor when I grow up."

"He's also our community sophomore."

"This is my turn R, shut it. Yes, I'm the community sophomore, and I play flute. I have a very possessive cat named Noodles."

Musichetta smirked and said, "You guys have freshman and sophomores claimed by upperclassmen too?"

"Yeah. We all try to boss him around but he's too fucking cute so we just have to settle with stalking him around the school and calling him a sophomore. But he's all of ours, so no claiming him for yourself!" Grantaire crossed his arms and glared at Musichetta but accidentally let a small smile remain on his face.

"Nope, he's all mine now." Musichetta stuck her tongue out at Grantaire and continued, "I'm Musichetta and I'm new here this year. I play trumpet and I'm Joly's boyfriend, FRICK I mean girlfriend!"

"My name is Enjolras and I'm guard captain. The only way I can live is to help others and be a light in this dark abyss of a world."

"I'm Feuilly and I'm in the pit section and I paint and sell fans at art festivals in my free time outside of school."

"I'm Combeferre."

Holly grinned. "Yes honeycomb, I know who you are."

"HONEYCOMB?" Courfeyrac's mouth hung open and Jehan bounced excitedly beside him.

"So you're Combeferre's girlfriend! I knew he was dating someone, I knew it I knew it!"

Combeferre was scandalized. "You've never called me honeycomb in your life!"

"I was waiting for a really good time to tick you off."

"It worked." Combeferre sighed and held her hand. "Te amo."

"I know. Me too."

"I'm Cosette and I have the best boyfriend in the world." She hugged Marius and looked up at him adoringly. "We've been dating for a year and he's my life. I play snare drum and I'm Valjean's adopted daughter but I think you knew that."

"My name is Marius Pontmercy and I love Cosette. Um-"

"You two are so cute like your partner comes up before yourself and wow you're adorable!" Jehan covered his mouth and waved Marius on after whispering, "Sorry."

Marius blushed and Cosette giggled. "Yeah um, I want to be a lawyer when I grow up and I seem to have a knack for learning languages. My dad is a veteran and I'm really awkward."

Jehan was still squirming happily as he said, "My name is Jean Prouvaire, or Jehan, and I love flowers, poetry, Courfeyrac, and playing flute and oboe."

"I'm Courfeyrac and my life's dream is to someday smell a koala!"

Grantaire stared at him and said, "What the fucking shit?"

"I'm already dating the boy of my dreams so I needed a new dream."

"Okay, whatever. I'm Grantaire. I don't think I need a description."

"You would be right."

"Hey I'm Bahorel and I like being outdoors."

Bossuet rubbed the back of his neck and said, "I'm Bossuet, I play mellophone in marching band and bassoon or trombone in concert band."

"And he's my best friend." Joly cheerfully draped an arm around Musichetta and one around Bossuet. "BFFs, right?"

"Right, yeah." Bossuet looked away from Joly and said, "I'm not feeling good, I think I'm just worried about needing to practice my music."

"Valjean expects you guys to be playing music on the field tomorrow, you'd better practice." Combeferre smiled at Holly and said, "And while all you practice we get to do nothing."

"Screw you." Grantaire drank the soup broth in one gulp and headed upstairs. He was nearly to his sleeping bag when Courfeyrac sprinted up to meet him.

Courfeyrac held out his music and asked, "Anything I can play you can play better, eh?"

Grantaire grinned and pulled his part out as well. "I'm surprised we didn't do this years ago."


	8. Chapter 8

A quick note: No one's said anything but in case anyone was wondering about the musical stuff in this and how it's going to be its going to be about as detailed as it is now. I don't have sheet music or scores for the songs and my ears can only be do accurate so I hope you guys don't mind a bit of vagueness. I could probably find music somewhere out there or take guesses but I'd prefer not to go through the hassle for something that doesn't add too much to the story anyways. That and I can't even find an instrumental version of Waltz of Treachery that I think is good enough for this so you have to use your imagination (I promise that when they get into the school year and are playing wind band music that they'll be songs you can find good recordings of on YouTube).

Everyone who mentions Joly a s Musichetta seems to like how they're doing and it makes me happy. I do have a bit to say about them, in that in the brick it was implied that Musichetta doesn't laugh much and that they were having issues and he wished they were okay and that she laughed. I'm sorry to those of you who like things to stick super close to the brick but I can't see Joly being with someone who isn't good humored or someone who isn't good humored being with him. That and I want them to work out, which you guys seem to like too, so Yahtzee.

Also, just saying since there isn't a good way to try and put a specific warning in the summary, this fic isn't going to be all cheerful or fun, there are some hard/sad times planned for some people or hard subjects. Like, Georges Pontmercy has some PTSD going on, R has his issues, just some things that I have a hard time getting a warning in about that are there. It truly is a year in the lives of these guys and it isn't all nice.

-my friends my friends this is a page break-

"A couple laps this morning ought to wake you all up. Leave your instruments in the band room and stretch on the marching field. Meet on the track in ten." Javert glided down to the track and left the yawning, bleary eyed crowd of students with Valjean, who led them to the marching field.

"Come on everyone, stretch out your legs. We've got some running to do today and I don't want anyone pulling something or cramping up."

"Uuuuuugh." Courfeyrac closed his eyes and tried to reach his toes. His fingers were three inches from his shoes and he groaned, "I'm too tired for this."

Joly sat down on the ground and held his legs straight out in front of himself and managed to stretch so far his hands went over his shoes and his fingertips touched his heels. "It's not bad if you practice a lot. Stretching is relaxing and being flexible can help prevent injuries."

"You're just a show off." Courfeyrac straightened himself and tried to stretch his thigh by standing on one foot and holding the other one behind him but wound up hopping around between people.

Grantaire dodged Courfeyrac and said, "You need to relax and stop panicking so you can balance dude, like this." He did the same stretch and stood perfectly still as Courfeyrac steered himself back over to Grantaire.

"It's hard to be relaxed when I have a night full of regrets behind me."

"Hey man I know the feel but you look like a flamingo trying to attract a mate."

"We're screwed, you know that right? I couldn't get my part right if my life depended on it."

"Which it kinda does." Grantaire steadied Courfeyrac and said, "Well, we ride together, we die together."

Jehan did a cartwheel from a ways away and when it didn't quite get him to Courfeyrac he got on the ground and rolled over until he was looking up at Courfeyrac's face.

"Hi."

"Good morning. Nice day for rolling around on the ground, eh?"

"Well," Jehan stood up and brushed the dirt off of himself. "It's such a beautiful and brisk morning. I wanted to be a bit more in touch with the earth."

"Everyone I know is going nuts today."

Jehan nodded as Grantaire talked to Enjolras, who was sitting on the ground, legs apart, and was reaching out as far as he could between them.

"Your legs are wonderfully flexible. I could help you make them even better."

"I'm fine, thanks."

"Trumpet players really are fantastic kissers you know."

"You've already used that one."

Joly appeared by Grantaire's side and winked at Grantaire. "But now he has a doctor to confirm his statement. It's quite true."

"OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE!"

If one listened carefully, they could hear a far off shout of "Language!"

Enjolras sat up and huffed. "Why do I keep getting yelled at when you lot swear like college students? And why have you dragged poor Joly into this?"

"He volunteered because he thought it'd be funny and don't deny it, I saw you smiling Enjolras. You think it's funny too."

"If I was smiling it would be like when a cat is purring as it claws your arm."

"Ooooh, mrow. I wouldn't mind a few scratches from you." Grantaire patted Enjolras's hair and said, "Keep blushing like that and you'll match your deliciously red yoga pants."

"To the track everyone!" Combeferre led the way across a freshly cut and large expanse of grass. "Please don't kick the rubber stuff on the track around too much, we just got it newly put in a few days ago so be nice."

The group, including Valjean, gathered on the track and Javert gestured for them to go. "Four laps is a mile, run, jog, or at least speed walk two laps and I'll think about more when you're through. Go."

The pack moved at mostly a jog with a few lagging slightly and a few out ahead of the others at an easy run. They stayed fairly consistent for about half a lap when Joly almost stopped.

Joly's eyes teared up with humiliation as everyone else ran ahead. His lungs burned as he gasped for air and his limbs simply didn't want to move. He stumbled and kept walking despite the feeling that his legs were being dragged down by weights. The rapid intakes of air were hardly doing any good and he could only run a few paces before having to slow to a walk and cough and the world seemed to be getting distant as he tried to force himself to run without enough oxygen in his system. Soon he could hardly even walk and felt himself start panicking as the group all passed him and he could only stumble a few steps.

Javert appeared beside Joly and asked softly, "Did you take your inhaler this morning?"

"Yes!"

"Do you need to sit down and catch your breath or is there some other exercise you think you can do right now?"

"I" -pant- "can't do, anything." Joly closed his eyes to try to hide how upset he was. "So- sorry. I'm so so-sorry. Oh- god- burning- sorry."

"Nonsense. This is not a matter of will or lack of discipline. This is something you physically cannot do due to a handicap you have and have treated as best you can. It is absurd to try to get you to do something impossible if you cannot get enough air to have your classmates's level of stamina. Sit in the middle and rest so you are ready for the day's activities."

Joly made his way off the track to sit in the grassy area in the middle of it. "Thank you," -cough- "sir." He took slow breaths and laid on his back to completely relax.

"There is no need to thank me!" Javert's voice reverted to his typical impersonal tone but with a hint of alarm in it, as though being personally thanked for something would somehow force him to bring any degree of emotion into his job. "It is what any officer would do for one he is in charge of. Separate people have separate abilities and needs and it hinders efficiency to ignore that fact." Joly could hear him walking away from his measured footfalls and also a mutter of, "You're welcome."

Joly smiled as energy came back to him. Wait till the others heard Javert was more understanding than half the PE teachers Joly had ever been stuck with.

"Hey sophomore!" shouted Grantaire. "The running's over with, get over here!"

As Joly ran towards Grantaire Grantaire kept talking. "Too bad you're a sophomore, it was so much more fun to call you a freshman. We're going to get our instruments so we can play on the field and I just wanted to let you know that I expect a full minute of laughter at my funeral. Silence is far too depressing. When I stand there visiting as a ghost I'll feel very uncomfortable if you all stand there in silence so don't do it. Also, can you tell me what witchcraft you used to make Javert remotely merciful? I think I'm gonna need it."

"He let me sit out because he thought it would hinder my ability to work the rest of the day in light of my physical handicap that prevents me from having the same stamina as the rest of you. In order to not hinder the efficiency of the overall group he let me rest."

"Damn Hermione you could've just told me he believes in asthma."

Musichetta put an arm around Joly's waist and kissed his cheek. "Hermione. That's a good nickname for you." She shook her head and chuckled, "Sanitary napkin."

"What? You two have an inside joke about feminine hygiene products? You're perfect for each other I swear."

They reached the band room and Courfeyrac and Grantaire exchanged a glance. "I can't believe I'm saying this Courf, but I'm sort of dreading this prank."

"Me too. We're screwed. What we really should have done is switch dots on the field. Hey wait up!" Courfeyrac scrambled to get his clarinet together while Grantaire impatiently stood beside him. "Not all of us can throw on a mouth piece and run you know."

"Just another reason why trumpets are better."

Everyone headed out to the marching field and started reviewing what they did the day before, this time with music tucked in with their dot sheets. Valjean started going through just field work and then adding music to it and letting Combeferre direct.

"What's going on over there?" Valjean signaled to Combeferre to cut off as Valjean stared at Grantaire.

Combeferre directed a cut off and waited for the band to follow him. "I know it's early in the morning but we need to be on the right sections of the music! Reset!" He turned to Valjean and said, "I haven't a clue why Grantaire had his instrument up when he shouldn't have been playing. He practiced for two hours last night to memorize his stuff." He started them again and out of the corner of his eye saw Grantaire make the same mistake and play his own little trumpet solo.

Valjean sighed and walked up to Grantaire once the short run was over. "What's going on with you? You don't have a solo part, check your music again."

"Sorry about that."

They did the same part again and Grantaire made the exact same mistake. Combeferre looked at Valjean and Valjean shook his head. "Keep going Combeferre, I have a theory."

This time Valjean listened closely to the clarinet section and let out a loud groan.

"Valjean?"

"I hate it when I'm right."

"Valjean?"

"What did I do to deserve this?"

"Valjean?"

"Is this about the silver, God? I thought we were past that."

"Valjean?"

"What the heck do you want?!"

"What do you want me to do? We've finished the set." Combeferre looked at Valjean expectantly and Valjean ignored him.

"Grantaire and Courfeyrac, come with me!" Valjean put a hand on Combeferre's shoulder and said, "Carry on and try to ignore the empty spaces. Come with me boys."

Grantaire and Courfeyrac followed Valjean to his office in the band room. He shut the door even though they were the only people in there, offered them two chairs and sunk into his office chair. Courfeyrac opened his mouth and Valjean cut him off like he was directing music.

Valjean looked Courfeyrac and Grantaire, who looked suitably guilty, in the eyes and sighed. He straightened himself and said, "I'm not going to ask you why you did this because the answer is that you don't have a reason. You did it for the hell of it. What seemed funny last night is now a morning ruined. I get it.

"I'm not going to lecture you two. You know this isn't okay, especially as section leaders, and that all you've done is made more work for yourselves. I don't believe in giving detentions but I will give you two some assignments from my music theory class due the first day of school.

"Courfeyrac, you're going to write me an essay explaining what tonality is and how it relates to key signature." Valjean smiled at Courfeyrac's confused and slightly panicky expression and said, "Be warned, you may actually learn something. Don't bother sourcing anything as I'm sure it'll be Combeferre, Cosette, or Wikipedia. Now run along so I can give Grantaire his more complicated assignment."

Courfeyrac left as quickly as he politely could and Grantaire squirmed. To his surprise, what Valjean asked of him wasn't horrible.

"Play something for me. Anything you like."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. Anything from a scale to Courfeyrac's clarinet part."

Grantaire shakily put his trumpet to his lips and played the first five notes of a scale before Valjean cut him off.

"Did I screw up?"

Valjean looked at Grantaire like he would a son. "Did you know that you tend to play ever so slightly flat when you've smoked in a few days before playing, and that your trumpet smells awful? I think it's regular cigarettes but it could be a mix of them and marijuana, it's hard to tell."

Grantaire looked down to avoid Valjean's caring look and let him continue talking.

"You told Bossuet on the first day of band camp that you were four days sober, yes I overheard, but something tells me that you weren't including whatever it is you smoke, only alcohol."

"You're right. I smoked just about everything I had once I got out of summer school the night before band camp started. I had a long, awful summer of trying to figure out geometry and trigonometry since I wanted to get all of my required math shit out of the way. This is the fourth time I had summer school for math and I hate it. I'm stupid and nothing makes sense and now all of my math grades through the years are straight D's with a few pluses or minuses. So yeah, after a couple months of mental torture, getting yelled at by my parents more than usual, and feeling extremely stupid I did some smoking to, I don't know, just get a way out of everything I was feeling. Are you going to report me?"

"No."

Grantaire's head snapped up and his eyes widened. "What?"

"I'm not going to report you, not because I'm trying to go against the law, but because I think it'd benefit you more to be given a chance to get better on your own instead if being criminalized and have a blot on your record for the rest of your life. Assuming, that is, that you want to overcome your problems?"

"Yeah. I do." Grantaire looked back down and set his trumpet on Valjean's desk so he could hug himself. "But I can't do it."

"I believe you can."

"You're wrong!" Grantaire stood up and started shouting. "Do you know how many times I've tried? Do you know how hard it is to be free of your vices? I've learned that what I want and what will actually happen in life are never the same, so stop torturing me with the idea of freedom or success, because it'll never happen!"

"Have you ever tried with support from anyone else?"

Grantaire threw back his head and let out a harsh, bitter laugh. "Who the fuck cares? None of my friends could ever understand me and would only pity me, and no one else would bother."

"I would bother. I care about you."

"Don't you know a lost cause when you see one?"

"Sit."

Grantaire sighed and plopped down heavily in his chair. "What's my assignment?"

"I'm going to tell you a story. It's a true one, about me before any of you were even born." Valjean smiled as Grantaire propped his elbows on Valjean's desk and held his head up with his hands wearing an exaggeratedly interested expression. "I assure you, it's worth listening to.

"Long ago, I was in a dark time in my life. My family didn't have any help to lend me, I had no work, and I was desperate to the point of staying in a bishop's house."

"You were homeless?" Grantaire forgot to be snarky and was now legitimately interested and surprised.

"Yes, I was. He gave me dinner, told me I was welcome to stay, and accidentally let me see where he kept his silver. I got up in the middle of the night and stole it."

"WHAT? You?! No!"

"Yes, me. I was arrested the day afterwards and brought before the bishop. I had lied and said the bishop had given me his silver but the police weren't convinced. Imagine my surprise when the bishop confirmed my story. He even gave me some silver candlesticks I'd left behind.

"I'm telling you this because I look like a well off goody two shoes who doesn't know shit about the rougher parts of life. I do know what it's like to be desperate, alone, and humbled. I know what it's like to have mercy given to you when you don't deserve it. I know just one small touch of compassion and kindness can do more than winning the lottery.

"I am not the bishop who bought me from destruction and you are not me, but I know that the right thing to do is not always the lawful thing to do. My heart tells me that you can get better, especially with help, and whether it happens in two weeks or twenty years, I'll never abandon you. You may feel eons old but you're young, tired but young, and you can change. I turned myself around as a full fledged adult, you get to do it now."

Valjean stood up and put a hand on Grantaire's shoulder. Grantaire rose and hugged Valjean tightly and wordlessly trembled. "Are you going to start AA meetings, Grantaire? Or NA? I don't know all you do and I don't want to but there's help out there for it."

"I don't know." Grantaire sniffled and squeezed Valjean harder. "I'm in shock, I'll need some time to process everything and get used to the idea of trying to quit again."

"Do or do not, there is no try."

"Shut up!" Grantaire laughed and detached himself from Valjean. "I feel much better."

"I'm glad to hear that. But you haven't gotten out of your music theory assignment."

"Damn it."

"You've worked your way through almost all of my music theory class so I'm giving you the final project. Pray you don't make me do this again or I'll write something up especially for you and you won't like it.

"Pick a song, any song with multiple parts over a minute long and analyze it for me. Blow me away, dazzle me with your music theory knowledge. Impress me." Valjean and Grantaire left his office and Valjean locked it.

"Your secret is safe with me like, no one will know about the silver."

"And if you really make an effort to get yourself better, I won't have you arrested."

"Is it sad that I trust you more than my parents?" Grantaire grinned but looked slightly bothered by what he was saying. "Even without us having secrets to keep for the other, you're more of a mom and dad to me than my own."

"Okay kiddo, go do your homework."

Grantaire gave Valjean a genuine smile before his joking one came back. "Yes daddy."

"I could give you more if you like."

"I'm good." Grantaire ran off to the band field ahead of Valjean and saw his friends all in one group with Joly at the center.

"Yeah guys, he actually let me sit out! I tried, couldn't do it, and he didn't blame me for it or call me lazy or force me to try to run until I passed out. He actually is understanding."

"Man that's nuts!" Courfeyrac sighed and said, "It must be a soft spot for you, he sure didn't seem understanding last year when I fell asleep on the field."

Combeferre rolled his eyes. "That's because it was your own fault for staying up all night playing Pokemon."

"Not my fault Javert doesn't understand the importance of beating the elite four or capturing Moltres!"

"You didn't have to do it all night with the sound on!"

"I lost my headphones so I had to play it out loud. You can't beat the game without sound on, you gotta live in the moment!"

"Hey guys." Cosette leaned forward and pulled Marius along with her. She lowered her voice and whispered, "You'll never guess what I saw Javert buy at the store the other day."

"You saw Javert and looked at what he was buying?" asked Courfeyrac. "I'd probably just duck down and run."

Bossuet chuckled and said, "I did that once and knocked over a display of Bee Movie DVDs. He made me pick them all up and just walked off."

"Well, it was well worth a look in his cart." Cosette smiled and tortured them all with a pause and finally said, "Mint chocolate chip ice cream."

Grantaire gave her a long stare and spoke first. "Bullshit!"

"Nope! He really did!"

"Javert's allowed to be human," said Combeferre.

"Him doing anything for pleasure is a weird image though, especially anything to do with ice cream." Courfeyrac shrugged and cuddled up to Jehan. "What're you writing?"

"A poem."

"About what?"

Jehan handed over his paper and Courfeyrac read:

Some take care to avoid imperfections

Gently steering away from any hardship

Fishing the stray grounds out of their cup

For fear they might swallow even a small difficulty

Others pour in leaves

Sip carefully

And in the end learn from the dregs

"Um, well, it's really pretty." Courfeyrac gave Jehan a smile and toyed with his braid.

Jehan's face brightened and he asked, "You get it?"

"Er, no." Jehan frowned and Courfeyrac said quickly, "But it's really nice even if I don't get it."

"I'm trying to write something to read for the talent show but I can't read something no one gets."

"Explain it to me?"

"Think tea leaf reading. You know, like Professor Trelawney?"

"OH! Okay I get it."

Jehan sighed and took his notebook back. "Yeah that was my moms reaction too when I texted her. I need something clearer."

"I still think its good though you should keep it."

"Of course I'll keep it, just because it doesn't work for what I want means its scrap." Jehan gave Courfeyrac, who looked distressed, a reassuring smile. "I keep everything I do, and I like my poem too but I'll write something else for the show, okay? It'll probably be about music."

"Why not love?"

"All of my love poems belong to you." Courfeyrac and Jehan both blushed at each other and Jehan held Courfeyrac's hand. "They have always been yours, but it's more official now that we're dating."

"Eewwwwwww!" Grantaire closed his eyes and pretended to look disgusted. "Mommy make them stoooooop!"

Musichetta looked around the group and asked, "If Valjean is our dad, who's mommy?"

"Probably me," sighed Combeferre.

"BACK ON THE FIELD!"

Javert himself couldn't do anything more to Grantaire and Courfeyrac as far as punishment went but made sure until everyone went home for a break early Wednesday afternoon that no one slacked off or did as much as a push up less than their neighbor. By the time Wednesday came everyone felt their break was well deserved and no one fussed when Bahorel mysteriously gained 400,000 in the monopoly game and finished the damn thing for them.

Musichetta ran up to Grantaire and asked, "You're close to Joly, yeah? Is there anything I should know a out his family before I go over and accidentally tick someone off?"

"Well, I can see what'll happen once you to get there. Joly will let you in, sweep you off your feet, carry you upstairs, lay you down on his bed, and then-" he sucked in a deep breath and continued in the same dramatic voice, "you will do absolutely nothing because his mom is always home in the evening and she's a huge cockblock."

Musichetta laughed and smirked at Grantaire. "What specific reason would you have for calling his mom a cockblock? Something you need to tell me?"

"Hell no! We're just friends, geez. She just automatically is because she's a mom and wants to protect her little baby from STDs."

"R!" Feuilly shouldered his backpack and tapped Grantaire's shoulder and asked, "Aren't you coming to Enjolras's today?"

"No, I have to babysit my sister. That and in case you've forgotten Enjolras hates me."

"No he doesn't. Take it from me, he really doesn't."

"Yeah yeah. Alright, he doesn't hate me, he detests me. Bye Musichetta."

Grantaire sighed and decided to get a move on before Feuilly could say anything more. The trumpet case wasn't too bad to carry but it and his backpack and sleeping bag combined became tiring.

He thought a lot about Enjolras. Nothing unusual in that, but instead of his typical longing and feelings of rejection there was confusion in there too. Why had he let himself get close to Grantaire and then pull away, and did he really imply what Grantaire thought when he said he wouldn't mind carrying a rainbow flag around?

It would certainly explain why he had Feuilly hang around so much. Everyone knew Feuilly was a huge inspiration for Enjolras and Grantaire wouldn't be surprised if it ran deeper.

Grantaire finally got home after his hour long walk feeling tired but relieved to have had time to think. With luck, his parents had already gone out for the evening.

"What took you so long?!

Or not.

"The walk is four miles, it takes time. If I were to do the math I'd come to the conclusion that it takes a long time." Grantaire shed his backpack and kicked his shoes off inside the front door. "You and mom can go now, I'll take care of Sylvie."

Grantaire's father nodded coldly and him and his mother left, dressed well and looking richer than they actually were. "Call us if anything happens."

"Yes mom."

"R!"

Sylvie ran from the living room and tackle-hugged Grantaire, nearly knocking him over. She smiled at him and their mother quickly said before Sylvie could warm up to Grantaire too much, "Be good and if your brother tries to get you into trouble don't follow him."

"Okay!" Their parents left and Sylvie bubbled, "I missed you so much, mommy and daddy are so boring and won't play with me or let me play piano because I don't know how to read music without you and they don't even like to let you be with me and it makes me sad."

Grantaire hugged her back and then scooped her up in his arms. "Don't worry, I'm here to rescue you from the boringness!"

"Hahahaha!" Grantaire's heart swelled with affection for her as she laughed. Sylvie could be described physically the same way as Grantaire since they shared the same eyes, mouths, light olive skin, and curly black hair. However, while Grantaire looked ugly with his features Sylvie looked pretty and would someday be attractive. She was the apple of their parents' eyes and Grantaire was the moldy cabbage.

He set her down and asked, "What do you want to do?"

"I want you to tell me about the girl you draw all the time."

"Huh?"

"She's from band and when you drink nasty things you get sad and talk about her and she's really mean to you even though you like her."

"Oh! God, I talk about him? Oops. Um, that's Enjolras." Sylvie dragged him to the couch and made him sit down beside her and give him such a similar expression to the one he'd given Valjean when he told him about his past that Grantaire had a hard time not laughing. "Er, right, Enjolras. He's a boy. He looks like a girl but he's a boy."

"Tell me more. Is he cute?"

"Gorgeous."

"Who does he like if he doesn't like you?"

"I don't really know, and I don't know if I should be having this conversation with you."

"Oh come ooooon." Sylvie held his hand and said in a surprisingly comforting tone. "The last time you talked about him a couple weeks ago the thought made you cry during Dog With a Blog. He means something to you but he makes you sad."

"To be honest, crying while watching Dog With a Blog might be totally unrelated to Enjolras but I could see myself doing that if I was drunk or something. Sorry. I dunno, he just, well, I love him, and he hates me because I'm such a hopeless mess." Grantaire ran a hand through his hair and said, "Please don't tell anyone I like him, the last thing mom and dad need to know is about my feelings for someone."

"Okay! It's cute that you like someone. Something I don't get is what's with the nasty stuff you drink. Do you drink it because you're sad, or do you drink it and then become sad?"

Sylvie was giving him a rare moment of seriousness and Grantaire tried to respect her question as best as he could. "I don't know. I don't know why I do a lot of things, but I've had a talk with a friend and I'm going to get better."

"Promise?"

"Yeah, promise."

They shook on it and Sylvie added, "I don't think you're hopeless. Anybody who can draw Pinky Pie as good as you can isn't hopeless."

"Thanks."

"Can you paint my nails?"

"Only if you do mine too."

-my friends my friends this is a page break-

"Marius! And Eponine, so lovely to see you!" Georges Pontmercy hugged Marius tightly. "The days seem long here without you kids but I'm sure time flies at band camp, eh?"

"I missed you though." Marius kissed his father's cheek and stepped back. "Monsieur Thenardier said it was okay to arrive early so we can leave as soon as you like."

"Yeah, he's really looking forward to seeing you." Eponine gave Georges her best smile and received one so much like Marius's that she blushed.

Georges mistook her blush and thought she had been staring at his scar and felt ashamed. "Harry Potter isn't the only one with a scar on his forehead. It's alright to look, even with a cap on its prominent. I just need to get my coat and we'll be off." Georges pulled a heavy coat out of the closet right inside the door of the house and bundled himself up despite it being summertime. "There we go, nice and cozy." He locked up and drove Eponine and Marius to Thenardier's apartment, sometimes asking Eponine for directions at intersections.

Eponine got out first and made her way up a flight of stairs to the apartment. She unlocked the door and let the Pontmercys in.

Thenardier was waiting in a loveseat at a coffee table in the living room. The place was cramped and lit by mismatched lamps around the room and no daylight since the window blinds had been closed. A tall and warm colored row of thick curtains hung in front of the dining room area, blocking it from view. The kitchen too had a curtain hanging over the doorway making the living room cavelike.

Thenardier gave Georges a soft smile and gestured towards the couch opposite him. "Take a seat, get comfortable, and I'll make some tea. Our children can go outside or be in Eponine's room while we visit."

Marius and Eponine took their cue and headed down a short hallway to the bedroom Eponine shared with Azelma as the adults started talking in polite but familiar tones.

Eponine and Azelma had bunk beds with a ladder in front. Azelma had the bottom and was curled up with a magazine, reading by a nightlight she had on the wall beside her and glow in the dark stars stuck to the underside of Eponine's bed. Eponine climbed up to hers and beckoned Marius up.

"Um." Marius stared at her and the small bed and squirmed.

"Oh come on, it's either up here or finding some place on the floor on top of Azelma's clothes."

Marius looked around the room and sighed when he realized that the desk with a dim lamp had no chair to go with it and the rest of the floor was taken up by dressers, shelves, containers, and the general inevitable mess of two girls sharing the same room. "You're right." He gingerly stepped over someone's bra that he hoped was clean and climbed up to sit beside Eponine in her nest of blankets, books, and papers.

"There you go. It's cozy up here, isn't it?" The walls were just as crammed as the room was with random pictures, posters, quotes, drawings, magazine clippings, and also the feeling that the inside of someone's locker had had enough and exploded with fangirl material.

Marius looked around with wonder at the number of Zac Efron and Taylor Lautner pictures and wisely decided not to ask who had what crush. "It's nice, like, it's really colorful and there's always something to look at. You could play iSpy with all this stuff."

"Yeah," said Azelma. "I spy with my little eye someone's stupid High School Musical crush."

"Better than that dumb werewolf!"

"Woah, woah, um, they're both attractive, okay? If I were a girl they'd be hot." Marius blushed at the look Eponine was giving him and said, "I know what girls like, okay?"

"Not if that haircut's anything to go by."

"Oh my God Azelma, shut up!" Eponine draped a blanket over herself and Marius and they both leaned back against the wall. "I know it's not like your house, but it's what we got." Marius nodded and smiled at her.

"Thanks for letting me into your home. I don't really get out much and it's nice to be here. Really." He looked more closely at the corner where Eponine would look sleeping at night and asked, "Are those of me and our friends?"

"Oh, er," she looked where he was looking and said, "Yeah, they are. Kinda weird I guess, but I don't ever buy yearbooks so you lot just hang out on my wall." Most of them were of small groups of their friends but a few of them were just of Marius. "I seem to have more of you than anyone else, what a coincidence, huh?"

"It's sweet of you. It's like something Feuilly would do." Marius and Eponine sat in comfortable though slightly awkward silence and listened to Azelma flip through pages.

"Let's try to hear what our parents are saying," suggested Eponine. She pulled out a notebook and a couple of pencils and handed one to Marius. "But make it look like we're doing something in case they come back here."

Azelma snorted. "Something innocent, that is."

Eponine genuinely laughed at Marius's expression and turned red at the same time. "Ahaha, be glad you don't have sisters."

Marius opened the notebook and started doodling a design in a corner. "Let's listen."

Thenardier drizzled honey into a cup of chai for Georges and brought the chai cup and a cup of green for himself out from the kitchen. Georges tried a sip and hummed happily at the taste.

"You make my tea better than I do."

"One must pay close attention to the pleasures of life. After all, they're what make life worth living." They lounged on their separate sofas facing each other and sipped tea for a few minutes.

Georges spoke first. "It's amazing to think Marius and Eponine are sixteen, eh? When we met they were tiny things back home and hardly even knew who we were. Here we are, Marius is getting his license soon, Eponine's 17th birthday is in just a week, and it feels like that Jeep overturned on me just yesterday."

"The time certainly has flown," agreed Thenardier. "I wouldn't know it if it wasn't for the five kids and gray hairs."

Georges chuckled. "I can imagine. Marius has always been sweet, really needing gentle guidance if anything, but I worry about him. At school, out with friends, anytime he isn't worth me I just hope he's okay. You have five flighty ones and I can't imagine how that feels."

"I think the greatest gift a child can have is freedom. Too little of it and he won't be able to handle himself out in life if he doesn't have time to explore." Thernadier stretched and said, "The boys spend a lot of time outside the house. I'd worry, but they have Montparnasse and some others to be with so I can't be too concerned."

"Aren't they a bit of a rough crowd?" asked Georges with a worried expression.

"All bark and no bite, I assure you. The worst thing that could happen would be Montparnasse introducing Gavroche to hair gel."

The two laughed lightly at the joke while the teenagers in the back had to cover their mouths and double over to not give themselves away.

Georges finished his tea and sighed with satisfaction. "You're right, in a way. I don't know if you remember but Marius's grandfather was having Marius homeschooled after I left for my most recent and last tour. It took a hell of a lot of persuasion to let Marius go back to school freshman year, something about bad influences and other youths would spoil him. Ridiculous. Before I let him go back he didn't really have friends to speak of his grandfather kept him so isolated. He had his clarinet, books, and new languages to learn.

"I'll admit it, part of me loved the time I had Marius all to myself before his grandfather gave in, but it broke my heart to see him so perfectly polite and distant from the rest of the world. Even at dinner eating with his grandfather and me at just eight years old his manners were perfect and he never would speak of out turn. It's no wonder he's so good at learning languages and at playing music; he had nothing else to do."

Marius blushed scarlet as his father talked about him and Eponine wrote down on the notebook 'It's alright, we all knew you were too perfect to have survived middle school.' Marius drew a smiley face in response and turned his attention back to his father.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm very proud of him and his talents, but it scares me to think of what would have happened if you hadn't gotten me out from under that car. His grandfather loves and adores Marius and will do anything for him except let him be a normal boy. The only reason I even get to be a part of Marius's life is because when his grandfather wouldn't let me live with him Marius kept running away to see me at my apartment. I'm sure his grandfather tried to put Marius against me Marius's curiosity got the best of him and upon seeing I wasn't some horrible thing, he wanted to know more and more about me.

"Though it saddens me, it was probably for the best that Marius was born when I was away on a tour of duty. Marius was with his grandfather before I came home and I could call his bluff about disinheriting him, of course he couldn't do that to a child he had grown close to and given shelter in his own home. His grandfather has no legal ground to keep me from my son so he reluctantly agreed to let me live with him and pay rent once I got back from the last time so Marius would be happy and quit sneaking out to see me."

"He really loves you, doesn't he?"

"Astonishingly so. Marius is a gem. He cares a lot about people, family and friends, and I'm yet to see him lose his temper. It's a pleasant surprise that he's dating Cosette without drama or problems with other girls. My dating life at that age looked like it came right out of those novels your wife reads."

"Oh lord, those were the days!"

This time Marius and Eponine exchanged a glance and had to collapse into her mattress to avoid sound getting out they were laughing so hard.

"But in all seriousness, I owe my happiness to you. I have Marius, and despite dealing with his grandfather, I couldn't be happier. I wish he didn't dry out my pension for rent or I'd help you out here." Georges gestured to the rest of the room.

"Ah, I couldn't accept it anyhow. Saving you was what anyone would have done."

"Nevertheless, I owe you for everything. Thank you." Georges was quiet for a moment and continued even more softly. "I cannot hold down a job anymore and my nightmares are worse and worse. Not about the Jeep mind you, many other things too that must haunt you."

"Certainly."

"You are my only friend."

"Life seems backwards, no? It's so relaxed, people care about clothes, everyone's so oblivious to the world outside their house and shopping mall. So superficial with only blips of meaning every once and awhile. Nothing is life and death, death is never out in the open and what's left cannot be called life." Thenardier drained the rest of his cup and said, "There are some things you go through that change your view forever. I'm not even sure I'd know what life is if it hit me in the face. Men like us, who have seen what we've seen are simply incompatible with the rest of society. At best we shove the deepest, most intense parts of ourselves aside to mingle with others and have few true friends. It is no fault of yours."

"I'm glad you think so. My friendships never seem to work out but I sure get in squabbles more than I ever imagined. If there's any political opinion old people tend to hold that you hate Marius's grandfather has it. And decides to pick fights with me over it all the time over things I don't even bring up. Part of me thinks the old bat wanted to homeschool Marius so he wouldn't feel guilty about voting no on education levies."

"Absolutely selfish."

"You're telling me. The only thing he never gets nasty about me with is the landscaping and gardening I do for his house. Even he can't find fault in that."

"I'm glad to hear you cultivate flowers, it ought to help you a lot. Speaking of education though, how do you think the marching show will turn out this year?"

"Oh it ought to be splendid! I heard it has something to do with pirates and that Eponine has a bit of starring role in color guard, that's exciting. Javert is back as a marching instructor so goodness knows they'll be whipped into shape."

Thenardier nodded and said, "This has been a delightful visit, and I'm sorry that I must cut it short. I have errands to run and I'm sure you'd like to have some time with Marius."

"I understand, and I appreciate that."

"This has really been beneficial for me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your friendship."

They stood and shared a short embrace. Georges called Marius out and Marius sprinted down the hall to meet him. "Have a good time?" asked Marius.

"Yes, wonderful. Thenardier has some errands to run so we best be on our way. Say goodbye to Eponine."

"Bye 'Ponine, see you tomorrow!"

"See ya," said Eponine with a forced smile.

Marius held Georges's hand as they walked out to his car. There had always been an unspoken agreement between them that hand holding would be acceptable for always and eternity no matter how weird other people might see it. Georges sometimes seemed more like a mother than a father, particularly through his gentle and abundant affections, but after all the time Marius had lost with him and the knowledge that his father needed him so much Marius grew to appreciate it rather than push him away with pride.

"Would you like to go to the park? It's a beautiful day out here and you'd probably like a change from school and home."

"Sure," said Marius. "I'm happy to go anywhere with you."

-my friends my friends this is a page break-

Musichetta sighed as she willed her phone to go off. "I should be able to go, my parents aren't terribly overprotective but they may decide to freak out." She turned to Joly and held her phone up. "Maybe they'll feel better if you know what you look like. Look cute." Joly gave her a deer in the headlights look and she send the picture off to her parents.

"Did I look cute?"

"You always do."

Joly reached over and awkwardly felt around her thigh before he found her hand to hold. "I hope your parents text back soon, the bus is coming."

"Aha! They said yes but I have to be back by six."

"Yay!" Joly kissed her cheek as the bus stopped for them. They picked up all their stuff and got on, drawing stares from the sleeping bags. He held her hand again once they were seated and spent the whole ride smiling and trying not to stare at her. They got off ten minutes later and Joly held her hand again as he les her to his house and unlocked the door. "Hey mom, I'm here with Musichetta!"

Musichetta waved when Joly's mom saw her and tried to look trustworthy. "Hi, I'm Joly's girlfriend."

"Good to meet you. Joly won't be having sex with you until he's 18."

"Um." Musichetta blushed almost as dark as Joly and nearly dropped her trumpet. "I wasn't planning on sex anytime soon."

"Well good. Because I don't care if you're older than him, you're not going to rush him or jump into something prematurely. And if you do, you're going to use condoms, be on the pill, get tested, have all your shots, and time it right in your menstrual cycle."

"Oh God, um," Musichetta glanced at Joly and saw him laughing due to panic. "Yeah, we'll be safe and all when the time comes, I mean, he's a virgin and so am I technically speaking like, okay I popped my own cherry, very long story, I don't know how I even crashed my bike like that but, God, okay, um, yeah, we're not gonna do it anytime soon." Joly looked like he was going to pass out and Musichetta gestured at the threshold a few inches from her feet. "Can we come in your house now?"

Joly's mom sighed and moved so they could come in. A golden haired cat bounded down the hall and Joly set his flute on a shelf by the door so he could scoop her up and try to forget the previous conversation had ever happened. "Hello sweetie, did you miss me?" he cooed. Noodles purred loudly and rubbed against his chest and made it very clear no forgiveness would be shown if he stopped petting her. "You can pet her if you like, she'll be much nicer to you if you spoil her."

"Awwww, she loves you so much. It must be hard for her when you're gone." Musichetta set her stuff down at the door and kicked her shoes off.

"Sorta. I'll show you how I keep her entertained when I'm busy or away." Joly led her upstairs to his bedroom and sat down in a desk chair while she smirked and lounged on his bed. "Oh boy, I don't think we're waiting until I'm 18. Um, anyways, this is the slightly evil cat toy I made, evil because its genius and keeps her entertained for hours." He let go of Noodles and she lightly clawed his shirt so she wouldn't fall off of him. Joly pointed to a scratching board that had been nailed to the bottom of his bedroom wall and then pointed to a tall fan next to the desk. "Watch this." He reached into the bottom rungs and flicked on a laser pointer that had been jammed into the frame and then turned the fan on circulate. A dot appeared on the scratching board and his cat immediately leapt off of him and tackled it as the fan rotated itself and the laser pointer.

"OH MY GOD!" Musichetta fell back onto the bed and they both burst into laughter. "Best use of an osculating fan I've ever seen!"

Joly looked at her like he was about to say something but laughed even harder instead.

"Your kitty must get so frustrated!"

"It's like a game that's fun that you can never beat, she has a blast with it and I can get my homework done." They looked at the cat again and went through another round of giggles and breathlessness.

"This visit was well worth the awkwardness with your mom. Oh man. I'm going to be laughing about this for weeks."

"I've been laughing about it for months."

Musichetta gently pulled him over towards her and kissed his mouth. "Life is wonderful with you."

"As long as you don't read my poetry."

"Lemme see it!"

"No!" He reached into his bag and pulled out his short poem anyways. "It's not even a haiku."

Musichetta read it and the two of them spent the rest of the evening laughing over Joly's cat and poem.

-my friends my friends this is a page break-

A few miles away Enjolras was out in his backyard with Feuilly roasting marshmallows. Enjolras was staring off into space and Feuilly said through a marshmallow, "Thaff's teh siff wo you'b burnff."

"Huh?"

Feuilly swallowed more marshmallow than is generally recommended and said, "That's the sixth one you've burnt tonight. What's wrong?"

"Do you think there's something wrong with me?"

"What? No, not at all."

"It's just weird. I mean, everyone seems to be dating but me. Everyone else seems so certain and willing to get into romance but me. Even Combeferre has a girlfriend, even if their relationship is low key and almost businesslike they have it."

"Look at me." Enjolras turned to face Feuilly and was surprised to see him look serious instead of cheerful. "You have a place in the world, and a place among your friends, and you belong, okay? It doesn't matter if you're not dating Grantaire yet, things happen at different speeds for different people."

"Okay, but who said anything about Grantaire?" asked Enjolras with a shrill voice. "I'm not in love with Grantaire, I don't care if he sleeps with a million people, I don't care, who said I ever cared?"

"You're head over heels for a guy that loves you, everyone can see it-"

"No." Enjolras impaled another marshmallow and stared at it as it roasted. "No, he doesn't love me. He simply," Enjolras closed his eyes and sighed, "likes, me. There's a difference. One of them involves a ring on my finger, the other involves a ring on my cock. Grantaire only looks at me and sees an attractive man he'd like to fuck, nothing more."

"You're wrong, and you just burned marshmallow number seven."

"Sorry." Enjolras shook the remains of the marshmallow off and tosses his stick aside. "It hurts, you know? I really care about him, I would consider a life with him, and that bastard teases and flirts with me and could never see being more than a friend with benefits."

"You're still wrong. Grantaire talks to other people besides you, you know. He loves you, but you have to think of it from his point of view."

"Enlighten me to this delusional point of view in which you heckle the person you care about and keep the best part of you secret." Feuilly seemed to think that Grantaire's point of view was so painful to tell that he needed to eat three marshmallows before telling it to Enjolras.

"Grantaire thinks you hate him. He thinks you absolutely despise him and that you only talk to him civilly because you're making the best of his contact with you. Stand in his place and understand, it would be insane for him to say anything deep or sensitive to you if he thinks you're going to shove him away. Therefore, it's safer to flirt and tease and be playful and to, you know, flip your skirt up, than to say what's really on his mind."

"That's stupid. That's so fantastically Grantaire-esque stupid. We had a close conversation when I was crying on top of him in the school bathroom, couldn't he tell that sort of thing means more than flirts? He spilled out some personal philosophy and thoughts and showed me that he's much more than I gave him credit for and now I don't know what to think."

"Didn't you then sort of push him away and ignore him and leave him to his drawing, which might I add, was of you?"

"I had a lot to think about! After I heard him say all that, I went from caring about him to then really actually feeling something like love, but because its my life, nothing makes sense! And even if we do try getting into a relationship, he has his alcohol and smoking and whatever else to deal with and I want to help him but I'd be scared of messing up. I don't know what to do!"

"Relax, and take it slow okay? Can I tell you a story? It's a bit of a long one, so we might want to head indoors and away from mosquitos."

"Sure."

Enjolras and Feuilly went upstairs to Enjolras's room and collapsed onto his bed. Feuilly and Enjolras laid down facing each other and Feuilly flung open the window by the bed and switched the lamp off so the room was only lighted by a lava lamp on the desk and refreshingly cool.

"I've been living with Jenna and Timothy for about four years, and I had a ton of guardians before that." Enjolras nodded as it was known in their group of friends.

"I can't remember all the places I was at, but one of my first memories is from when I was four or five. I had a witch of a guardian, she didn't like kids, was grumpy, and to this day I don't know why she decided to be a foster parent. I was at a park with her and for some reason it had just occurred to me that I had never called her mom while all the other little kids called their guardians mom.

"So, in the way of a kid who hasn't learned fear yet, I asked her 'can I call you mommy?' She said 'no, I'm not your mother, you'll never have a mother'. This upset me and seemed awfully unfair so I said 'why?' she said 'your parents didn't want you, so now you have no family. You will never be adopted by anyone because no one wants you. That's why you're with me'."

"Oh my God." Enjolras frowned and reached out to hold Feuilly's hand. "She said that to you when you were that little?"

"Yeah. Should've messed me up to hear that but it did the opposite. See, I understood family as something that could be one-sided. Like, if you're adopted, you're family whether you picked your parents or not. So I thought, it doesn't matter if no one wants to adopt me, I'll just adopt them! Problem solved! The whole world was my family whether they liked it or not.

"I've always had a bright sort of happy look at life. Again with the one-sidedness, it didn't matter if life didn't like me, I liked life and therefore it worked. Not a perfect philosophy, but for a practically homeless kid it got me through a lot.

"I changed homes about every six months to a year. Some places nicer than others, some places gave me nightmares and some places I should have been thankful to leave. It's weird, that even in homes when I was abused and hit more than held, I still cried when I had to leave. I went everywhere with an open heart, and that final, concrete rejection when I was shipped away again hurt more than any blow. Some parents made me feel loved but when they didn't want to keep me it always broke me. I'd heal a bit, get used to the new place and be broken all over again when I had to go.

"When I first got here, it must have been obvious I wasn't normal. How many people act hurt but also open? I was both shy and welcoming, quiet but friendly. When I met all of you it was a shock to get pulled in so quickly by such a great group of people. I instantly loved my guardians as well and it was nice for that year to just be happy.

"Then it came. I was going to have to leave again. It'd never hurt that bad before. I remember breaking down a month before the date I was supposed to go. I was in my bed, I thought my guardians were asleep, but then they came in, gave me hugs, got me to calm down, and said they had something to tell me. They'd had some talks, done research, and decided they wanted to keep me. They wanted to make an occasion out of telling me but figured I wouldn't mind knowing sooner.

"You already know that, but I guess I'm telling you because I want you to know that you can't give up hope with love or people. Someday, you'll find the right person at the right time and you'll be happy. Maybe it's someone you already know, but the two of you aren't ready yet. Maybe it won't happen at all, but if you quit wanting it and hoping, it certainly won't happen at all. See?"

"Yeah." Enjolras gave Feuilly a rare, soft smile and said, "You have a kind of bravery and heart that a lot of people don't have anymore. You're the most selfless person I know, and someone I look up to, and you're a little younger than me!"

Feuilly blushed and said, "I'm not brave like that."

"Are you implying that it isn't brave if you would do it automatically? It just means you have a stronger core to begin with. The world would be a better place if we had more people like you, who truly love and care for all and let nothing ruin them."

Feuilly ducked his head and grinned bashfully. "I think my destiny is to be a professional hippie."

"I'll support you in that."

The two laid there in companionable silence for awhile. Enjolras felt himself starting to drift off when Feuilly said, "I'm sorry for bringing this up when we're trying to sleep, but I can't believe you know what a cock ring is."

"I lost my innocence on accident. I went into Spencer's to get a lava lamp because they were advertising a sale on them, and I took something of a wrong turn and found myself in an aisle that definitely did not contain lava lamps."

"So that lava lamp in the corner is the lava lamp of lost innocence?"

Before Enjolras could say anything they both cracked up and laughed so hard they were lightheaded afterwards.

"Oh geez, I don't wanna move." Feuilly buried his face in a pillow and asked, "Can I stay here? I'm really too tired to move."

"You can sleep there, I don't care. I always feel a bit bad that you usually sleep on the floor while I'm in my bed. I know we're guys but you don't have to go and sleep in the garage."

"Alright. Goodnight."

"Night."

In the morning, Enjolras figured out why he didn't sleep next to people.

"AAAAAIIIIAHHHH!" shrieked Enjolras the second he opened his eyes and saw Feuilly inches from his face.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!" shrieked Feuilly in response to waking up to an ear shattering scream.

Both reacted like startled cats and sprang off the bed on their separate sides and landed with loud thumps and bangs on the floor. Feuilly groaned and woozily stood up to see Enjolras on his knees leaning on the other side of the bed.

"Next time it's the floor or the garage."

"Sounds good. I think I smell food."

"That's weird, my parents usually don't cook early on weekdays." Enjolras and Feuilly followed the smell of French toast down to the kitchen and Enjolras didn't know which was stranger, the fact that Grantaire was in his kitchen cooking breakfast or that his nails were a bright and sparkly magenta.

"So I kinda snuck into your house and made breakfast."


End file.
